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FIGHTING THE BOCHE 
UNDERGROUND 



r 







Captain Trounce. 



FIGHTING THE BOCHE 
UNDERGROUND 



BY 
H. D. TROUNCE 

FORMERLY OF THE ROYAL BRITISH ENGINEERS 
NOW CAPTAIN OF ENGINEERS, U.S.A. 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1918 



XoVv 



Copyright, 1918, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Published October, 1918 




h 5"0 



OCT 15 S9I8 

©GI.A503846' 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. INTRODUCTORY i 



II. TO THE FRONT 12 

III. UNDERGROUND 27 

IV. CRATER FIGHTING 44 

V. TUNNELLING IN THE VIMY RIDGE 

TRENCHES 61 

VI. CHALK CAVERNS AND TRENCH 

MORTARS 78 

VII. AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE 97 

VIII. THE SOMME SHOW 115 

IX. THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 127 

X. THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 142 
v 
O , A 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XL THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 162 



XII. THE HINDENBURG LINE 176 

XIII. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR 199 

XIV. SOME PRINCIPLES OF MINING 207 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Captain Trounce Frontispiece *-"" 

FACING PAGE 

Breathing-apparatus necessary in going into "gassy" 

galleries 50 * 

Sector near Neuville-St.-Vaast, Vimy Ridge trenches, 

April 3, 1916 64 >'' 

The same sector, Vimy Ridge trenches, May 16, 1916 66 

Explosion of a mine 80 ]/ 

A cellar, protected by sand-bags, in the village of 

Hebuterne used as a shelter by engineer officers 130 " 

In a German trench 156 * 



View from rear of a typical German reinforced con- 
crete machine-gun emplacement. Taken on 
the Hindenburg line south of Arras .... 178 

Rough sketch illustrating breastworks and systems 

of underground galleries At end of volume 



s/ 



CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTORY 

IT has been frequently suggested to me that 
I write of my experiences at the front. As 
one of the advance-guard of the American 
army who participated in the great struggle for 
freedom long before the United States espoused 
the cause of the Allies, I am more than willing 
to do this, owing to my strong desire that the 
public should know something of the constant 
fighting which is going on underneath as well as 
on the surface and above the ground of the 
trenches both in France and elsewhere, espe- 
cially if, by so doing, I can help the people at 
large more fully to appreciate the importance 
of the work and the unflinching devotion of 
that branch of the army which but seldom finds 
itself singled out for the bestowal of special 
honors or for the expression of public approba- 
tion. 

This narrative will be mainly concerned with 
the engineers and sappers who are so quietly 



2 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

and unostentatiously undergoing extraordinary- 
hardships and dangers in their hazardous work 
below the ground, in order that their comrades 
of the infantry may occupy them above, safe, 
at any rate, from underground attack. In no 
species of land warfare is a cool head and clear 
brain, combined with decisive and energetic 
action and determined courage, more required 
than in the conduct of these military mining 
operations. 

The value of mines and of similar contrivances 
of the engineer is partly psychological. Though 
hundreds of men only may be put out of action 
by their use, thousands of valuable fighting 
men suffer mentally from the knowledge or 
from the mere suspicion that their trenches are 
undermined by the enemy. Such a suspicion 
causes the strain on their morale to be very 
severe and their usefulness to be correspondingly 
diminished. 

The men engaged in this work do not receive 
that inspiration and access of courage which 
comes from above-ground activity and which 
enkindles and stimulates enthusiasm, as in a 
blood-stirring charge. This trench tunnelling 
and mine laying requires a different form of 



INTRODUCTORY 3 

bravery: that unemotional courage which re- 
sults from strong self-control, determination, 
and perseverance of purpose. The personnel 
of these engineer-mining regiments usually 
work in twos and threes, or in small groups, 
cramped in narrow galleries, sometimes 20, 
sometimes 200, feet below the surface; and 
often immediately under or beyond the enemy's 
front trenches. On numerous occasions they 
silently force their way underground, despite 
great difficulties and risk, to within a few feet 
of the enemy sappers, hardly daring to breathe. 
A cough, a stumble, or a clumsy touch only 
are necessary to alarm the enemy, cause them 
to fire their charge, and thus send another 
party of opposing soldier miners to the "Val- 
halla" of modern fighting men. In this war, 
enormous charges of the highest and deadliest 
explosives known to man are used. Instant 
annihilation follows the slightest mistake or 
carelessness in handling such frightful com- 
pounds. Always is there excitement in abun- 
dance, but its outward manifestation is of neces- 
sity determinedly suppressed. No struggle with 
a living and resourceful enemy comes to stimu- 
late the soldier mining engineer; only a ghostly 



4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

adversary has he to contend with, one who is 
both unresponsive and invisible until the final 
instant. 

No part of such work can be hurried. Under- 
ground surveys are calmly and efficiently made, 
huge mine charges deliberately and quietly 
placed, electrical connections carefully tested, 
and at the precise moment fired with terrific 
detonation and damage. The earth is shaken 
for miles around, trenches are entirely buried 
with the debris, while companies of men are 
engulfed, and immense mine-craters formed. 

During the progress of this war there has 
been a constant increase in the number of en- 
gineering troops and development in engineer 
equipment. While the organization of the 
German troops at the outset of the war included 
large numbers of engineer soldiers specially 
trained for military purposes, the number of 
engineer units in the British forces as well as 
those of our other allies was comparatively 
small. 

The training of engineer troops among the 
Allies for use in trench warfare was extremely 
limited; their work was confined generally to 
the operations of open warfare. 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

Trench warfare changed the whole course of 
events and rendered necessary wide and sweep- 
ing changes in organization, training, and equip- 
ment. It has been often stated that this is 
a war of engineers, and it is certainly true. 
Engineers and engineering problems are found 
in every branch of the service. 

Instead of being a small and comparatively 
unimportant corps in our great army machine, 
they are now of the first importance, and no 
operations of any magnitude are undertaken 
without including the necessary engineer forces. 

In almost every instance careful liaison or co- 
operation must be effected with the infantry 
or other arms concerned in the operations. 

I can hardly begin to enumerate the different 
activities of engineers in trench and open war- 
fare. Some of the most important work done 
by them in this trench warfare includes the 
construction, repair, and general maintenance 
of all trenches (assisted by the infantry); the 
building of all mined dugouts and shelters of 
all descriptions; the construction of all strong 
points and emplacements, machine-gun posts, 
trench-mortar posts, artillery gun-pits, snipers' 
posts, O. P.'s, or artillery observation-posts, and 



6 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

so on; all demolition work, such as the firing of 
large charges of high explosives in mines under 
the enemy's positions, the destruction of enemy 
strong points, etc.; the building and main- 
tenance of all roads; the construction and de- 
struction of all bridges, construction and opera- 
tion of light and heavy railroads, and many 
other duties too numerous to mention. 

It is a work of alternate construction and 
destruction. The sapper must be a real soldier 
as well as an engineer. With the possible ex- 
ception of some of the troops on lines of com- 
munication, and some railway, harbor, and 
other special units, they are all combatant 
troops, and are so rated and recognized. Many 
thousands of them are on constant trench work 
and other thousands on work close up, where 
they are continually shelled and exposed to 
fire. 

The training of the majority of engineers 
includes the same methods of offense and de- 
fense as the infantry, and well it is that it does 
so. Almost every day on the western front 
they are called on to accompany the infantry 
"over the top," or on a raid on enemy trenches; 
to destroy enemy defenses; or to consolidate 



INTRODUCTORY 7 

captured trenches; or again to "man the para- 
pet" in holding off enemy attacks until infantry 
reinforcements can come through the usual 
"barrage." These things happen every day 
in the trenches, and the engineer soldier would 
be at a serious disadvantage if he had not been 
trained in the use of rifle, bomb, and bayonet. 
No one has a stronger admiration for the in- 
fantry than I have, and every one must take 
off his hat to these "pucca" (real) fighting 
men, but the fact remains that the sappers 
who have continual trench duty are subject 
to the same constant trench fire as the infantry 
are every day — the only real difference is that 
they seldom get a chance to "hit" back. They 
have their work to do, and seldom have a 
chance to return the compliment and "strafe 
the Hun," except in self-defense. 

Strategists are pretty well agreed that the 
main successes of the war must be won by 
sheer hard trench fighting, and continued until 
the Germans will not be able to pay the cost 
in lives and munitions. 

In this underground warfare the work of 
the engineers whose business it is to protect 
the infantry from enemy attacks below ground 



8 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

is both serious and interesting. At the head- 
quarters of the mining regiment a note is 
opened from the Brigade Staff: "Enemy min- 
ing suspected at K 24 b 18 — request immediate 
investigation.'* An experienced mining officer 
is at once detailed to proceed to the area in 
question and report on the situation. 

At times it is a question of nerves on the 
part of some lonely sentry, but quite as often 
it develops that the enemy are mining in the 
immediate vicinity. Measures to commence 
countermining are at once started. 

Then the game of wits below ground begins. 
Mine-shafts are sunk and small narrow gal- 
leries driven at a depth which the engineers 
hope will bring them underneath the German 
attack galleries. From day to day and even 
from hour to hour when they are within strik- 
ing distance careful and constant listening be- 
low ground is undertaken, both friend and foe 
endeavoring to make progress as silently as 
possible. 

In a regular mine system all manner of ruses 
are adopted to keep the enemy guessing as to 
the exact locality of each of their tunnels: 
false noises in distant or higher galleries; plain 



INTRODUCTORY 9 

working of pick and shovel in others; mean- 
while they are silently and speedily making 
progress in the genuine tunnels to the real 
objective. 

Often we delay the laying of our charges of 
high explosive until we are within two or three 
feet of the enemy gallery and can even hear the 
enemy miners talking. On three occasions I 
have heard them talking very plainly, and lis- 
tened for hours to them working on, quite un- 
conscious of their danger. It was always a 
source of annoyance to me that I could under- 
stand so little German. At other times, and 
this has happened more than once in the clay 
soil of Flanders, we have broken into enemy 
galleries and fought them with automatic pis- 
tols, bombs, and portable charges of high ex- 
plosives. 

As a means of offensive warfare, mining has 
taken an important part, particularly in the 
launching of infantry attacks and night raids. 

The battle of Messines Ridge in July, 1916, 
was started by firing at the "Zero" hour some 
19 mines, spread over a front of several kilo- 
metres. In these 19 mines the aggregate of 
the total high explosive used and fired at the 



io FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

same instant was a few thousand short of 
1,000,000 pounds. Some of the individual 
charges were nearly 100,000 pounds each, and 
had been laid ready for firing for over twelve 
months. Some idea of the frightful force and 
power of these charges may be obtained when 
it is remembered that each of the "Mills" 
bombs, or hand-grenades carried by British 
soldiers, contains one quarter of 1 pound, or 
4 ounces, only of this explosive. As a result 
of this terrific blow the Germans retreated for 
over a half-mile on the entire front mined, and 
the initial objectives of the British were cap- 
tured with astonishingly low casualties. 

In counter-mining, when the enemy are met 
below ground in crossing under No Man's 
Land, it is the usual practice of the Allies to 
explode a charge or mine which they call a 
"camouflet." The camouflet totally destroys 
the enemy's gallery, but does not break the 
surface. The common and the overcharged 
mine always blow a deep and wide cone- 
shaped crater. Large charges of explosive 
blow craters several hundred feet in diameter 
and well over 100 feet in depth. 

In almost every sector of the western front 



INTRODUCTORY n 

in France where the trenches are close together, 
(that is, from 20 or 30 up to 200 yards apart), 
these mine-craters are found in No Man's 
Land. In sectors where mining has been very 
active, mine-craters are so common that they 
intersect each other. The "blowing" of a 
crater in No Man's Land at night and the im- 
mediate occupation and consolidation of it 
by the infantry and engineers is a wonderfully 
stirring affair. The strain on the morale of 
the infantry occupying sectors which are known 
to be mined is a terrible one, especially if they 
have no engineers to combat the stealthy at- 
tack. For the hundreds who are killed, buried, 
or injured from enemy mines there are thou- 
sands who suffer a mental strain from the mere 
suspicion of their existence. 

Trench mining now, I am glad to add, is not 
the menace that it was in 191 5 and 1916, but 
when the good-weather offensives cease and the 
usual winter trench warfare is renewed, mining 
will probably make its reappearance. 



CHAPTER II 
TO THE FRONT 

BEING of British parentage and birth, 
most of my earlier life was spent in Eng- 
land. On coming of age, I left Eng- 
land for Canada, and after a few months there 
decided to study mining engineering in the 
United States. I attended a Western college, 
the Colorado School of Mines, leaving there 
in 1 910 to practise my profession as a civil and 
mining engineer in California, where I took out 
my final papers as an American citizen several 
years before the war. 

By reason of my birth my sympathies were 
naturally much aroused in the earlier part of 
the great struggle, and the fact that my brother 
had joined the Canadian forces directly after 
war had been declared, and the subsequent 
injury and death in battle of several British 
cousins, infantry officers, early in the war, 
preyed on my mind to such an extent that I 
left my home and practice in California in 

12 



TO THE FRONT 13 

October, 1915, proceeded to New York, and 
from there to London. I applied for a com- 
mission in the Royal Engineers. No un- 
necessary questions were asked as to my na- 
tionality. I proved my engineering experience, 
and within two weeks was ordered to report to 
the officer commanding an officers' training- 
corps in London to commence training. 

It may be of interest to note here that I was 
then in much the same frame of mind as many 
of our soldiers are now — generally afraid that 
the war would be over before they reached the 
trenches. I was first offered a commission in 
a field-engineering company of the Royal En- 
gineers, but informed at the same time that it 
would be necessary for me to put in three or 
four months' preliminary training in England 
before I could get over to France. 

This did not appeal to me. I was also of the 
opinion at the time that the war would proba- 
bly be over before long; and later, by inquiry, 
elicited the fact that mining engineers were in 
immediate and great demand on account of 
very active enemy fighting underground in 
France. I found out later that a number of 
British mining engineers, coming back to Eng- 



i 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

land from India, Africa, and various parts of 
the globe to enlist in their country's cause, had 
applied to the War Office for commissions, and 
had been accepted at once, given three days to 
arrange their private affairs, obtain their uni- 
forms and active service-kits, and report to the 
companies they were posted to in the front-line 
trenches. Certainly the red tape was cut here. 
In less than three weeks I received my com- 
mission as second lieutenant, with orders to 
leave the O. T. C. and proceed to Chatham, to 
the R. E. Barracks, in company with several 
other mining officers, for a few days' further 
training preparatory to proceeding overseas. 
The British Government makes a grant of ap- 
proximately $250 to all officers when com- 
missioned in order that they may supply them- 
selves with uniforms and kit. These were soon 
obtained, and we were then instructed to hold 
ourselves in readiness to sail at any minute. 
We were first under orders to sail on Christmas 
morning, much to my disgust, as it was my first 
Christmas in England for many years, but we 
did not finally leave until New Year's eve, 
when we were taken by troop-train to South- 
ampton, and embarked the same day. 



TO THE FRONT 15 

On disembarking in Rouen we were all 
marched up to the various infantry and other 
camps established there some four or five 
kilometres out of the town. Together with 
several other engineer officers, I was assigned 
to an infantry camp for a few days' infantry 
training whilst awaiting orders to proceed up 
the line. Life in these camps is far from un- 
pleasant, although the training is severe and 
exacting. The city of Rouen is an extremely 
interesting one, and numerous amusements 
were provided by the British and French au- 
thorities for the troops who are always coming 
and going from these base camps. As the scene 
of the martyrdom of the famous French saint 
Jeanne d'Arc, it is well known to all the world. 

At the first officers' parade, at Rouen after I 
arrived in France, we were all informed by the 
camp adjutant that cameras were forbidden 
and that any man who had a camera in his 
possession after twenty-four hours would be 
court-martialled. I had one — a small vest- 
pocket-kodak — but after this order decided to 
send it back to a friend in England. Some six 
months later I was fortunate enough to secure 
a small kodak in one of the villages behind the 



16 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

lines and managed to get the few pictures which 
illustrate this account. 

There are, necessarily, a large number of 
military-base and training camps established 
by the British in France, and the camps at 
Rouen seem to have been used mainly for rein- 
forcement troops and returned casualties. I 
met one officer of infantry here who was re- 
turning to his regiment in a few days and who 
had just been reported "fit for duty" again 
after his third wound ! Even early in 1916 this 
was not uncommon. 

In the light of subsequent experience, I am 
more inclined to condole with the poor fellows 
who have borne the brunt of the struggle and 
escaped for long periods without being wounded. 

Even the poor chaps who are fatally wounded 
seldom realize the fact at first, and are only 
conscious of sudden relief in the thought that 
they will be away from the trenches for a while. 
I have seen this instanced many times. In 
May, 1916, 1 was sharing a dugout with another 
officer in the trenches near the Vimy Ridge. 
R/s orderly, W., was returning with a message, 
and as he nearly reached the dugout he was 
caught by a heavy trench mortar and one of 



TO THE FRONT 17 

his legs blown off. He was also hit in several 
other places. We sent for "stretcher-bearers 
at the double,'' the usual call when casualties 
happen in the trenches, and R. promptly fixed 
him up as best he could with one of the field- 
bandages we always carried in our blouses. 
Poor W., one of the finest lads I have ever 
known, not realizing fully the fatal nature of 
his wounds, remarked cheerfully: "Blime, I 
ain't 'alf-crocked now for the rest of my days." 
We agreed with him, but pretended to envy 
his certainty of a "Mighty." He was carried 
off to the nearest regimental aid-post, about 
a quarter of a mile down the nearest communi- 
cation-trench, but the poor chap never left 
it, dying within a couple of hours. 

At Rouen we received the usual training given 
to all combatant officers and men reporting 
there. This included daily lectures and prac- 
tice in the following subjects: Bomb-throwing, 
machine-guns and their operation, infantry 
close and extended order drill, trench mortars 
and their use, gas lectures, etc., interspersed 
with long-route marches, sham fights and ma- 
noeuvres, trench reliefs day and night, and prac- 
tice and lectures on all the varied forms of 



18 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

frightfulness then indulged in by the opposing 
armies. The bomb-throwing was most fasci- 
nating. At that time the British were using 
eight or ten varieties of bombs, from the old 
handle-bombs with streamers attached, to the 
cricket-ball bomb, which one had to light from 
a brassard on the arm. I had never even seen 
a bomb before, and always associated them with 
the playful humor of the now back-number 
anarchist. Without any preliminary practice, 
we were detailed to throw these "live" bombs. 
My heart was in my mouth as we approached 
the bombing-trenches, but I very carefully 
watched the operations of the other fellows, 
and listened attentively to the very matter- 
of-fact and callous British corporal instructors. 
My nerves, however, were in fair shape, and I 
threw every type without any disastrous con- 
sequences, though my heart was certainly 
working overtime. 

While writing of bombs, I want to sound a 
note of warning to those of our boys who will 
have this form of amusement in store for them. 
In these days the throwing of "dummy" 
bombs always precedes the training with live 
ones, and this is wise and natural, careful hatits 



TO THE FRONT 19 

being formed in this way which eliminate largely 
the fatal accidents which have happened so 
often in the early training of British and French 
units. The one essential is calmness. Nearly 
all troops who are highly disciplined have this 
calmness bred into them, and very useful and 
necessary it is for almost any operation in mod- 
ern warfare. A "jumpy" soldier, or one whose 
nerves are not in the best of shape, very fre- 
quently knocks his arm against the parados 
whilst throwing a bomb, drops it in the trench, 
fails to throw it clear of the parapet ahead, and 
in other ways not only seriously endangers his 
own life but those of his comrades practising 
with him. 

The training at these base camps is made 
as realistic as possible, one feature being the 
passage through "gassed" galleries or cham- 
bers of all officers and men who report at the 
camps. The chambers are filled with the 
strongest and deadliest of gases, chlorine, phos- 
gene, bromine, and other gases being used in 
more concentrated form than one encounters in 
the regular attacks. All this and other train- 
ing gives men the confidence necessary to face 
bravely the fighting ahead of them. 



20 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

After six days at Rouen I was posted to my 
company, and ordered to "go up the line." 

Our billet, it developed, was in the village of 
Sailly-sur-la-Lys, two miles from the front-line 
trenches opposite Fromelles, and a little south 
of Armentieres, incidentally the scene of very 
heavy fighting in 191 4 and recent opera- 
tions. 

I was fortunate enough to get for a billet a 
small room off the kitchen of a Flemish farm- 
house in the village. Our mess, a rough wooden 
hut, was just across the street, and after pro- 
ceeding there to meet my company officers, 
we had a very excellent dinner of a couple of 
chickens obtained in some mysterious way by 
our mess corporal. During dinner I was more 
or less entertained with stories of that day's 
events as related by the other men, one man 
describing how a German sniper had put a 
bullet through his cap during the afternoon in 
the trenches. (It was not until six months 
after this that we were supplied with steel 
helmets.) Another man told how an aerial 
bomb dropped from an enemy plane had landed 
within a few yards of him on a road several 
miles back. I thought the object was to string 



TO THE FRONT 21 

newcomers like R. and myself, but found out 
later that it was all part of the usual days' 
programme. 

The next morning my section commander 
suggested that I ride up with him to inspect our 
work in the front line. It was taken for granted 
that I could ride an English motor-cycle, and 
although I was familiar enough with our Ameri- 
can varieties, I surely had my troubles with this 
one. The slipperiness of the metalled and 
paved roads in this part of Flanders increased 
my uneasiness. I broke down several times 
on a very unhealthy road, shelled with annoy- 
ing regularity by the Boches, much to the dis- 
gust of Captain P., who, however, good-na- 
turedly helped me out on each occasion. We all 
had our troubles in riding motorcycles on the 
roads in Flanders and France, especially on the 
pave or granite-block paving which is so com- 
mon. When it's wet, and that means most of 
the time, about the only way to prevent skidding 
is to open your throttle for all it's worth and 
travel as fast as you can. One morning, dur- 
ing my first week, I had some six, more or less, 
painful falls within a mile in riding up. After 
the last one, I was so mad that I flung the re- 



22 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

mains of the machine into the ditch on the side 
of the road and proceeded to walk the rest of 
the way up. In a short time, though, we got the 
hang of the machine and could ride anywhere 
day or night. As a matter of fact, we never 
lingered on the roads going in and out of the 
trenches. Most of the metalled or flint roads 
of Flanders had a ditch on either side, into 
which we took occasional headers. One had 
to ride carefully and fast. A motorcycle with 
the throttle wide open helps to drown the noise 
of enemy shells bursting in one's vicinity. 

Many wild rides I remember, especially at 
night when, of course, no lights could be used 
within three or four miles of the front line; 
and candor compels me to confess that occa- 
sionally we would take an extra "whiskey and 
soda" — the standard British drink — at the 
mess before leaving in order to give us a little 
extra Dutch courage. It was always effective; 
we didn't care much what shell-holes we hit, 
or how many mud-baths we obtained. To 
resume, after much trouble Captain P. and I 
arrived at the advanced material billet, which 
is always situated within a few hundred yards 
of the entrance to the communication-trenches, 



TO THE FRONT 23 

and, leaving our machines here, we started up 
the trench. 

This sector of the trenches, opposite Fro- 
melles, at that time would have been described 
by veterans in trench fighting as a quiet sector, 
but I cannot say that it appeared particularly 
quiet to me that day. 

My first impressions under fire were quite 
complex, but I distinctly recall the fact that I 
was more scared by the firing of our own artil- 
lery than by the comparatively few shells of 
the enemy which burst in our vicinity. So 
many things were happening around me in 
which I was so intensely interested that my 
curiosity got somewhat the better of my fears, 
and only when bullets whistled very close, or 
shells burst fairly near, was I much worried. 
My second day in the trenches was quite dif- 
ferent. I had started to come out alone a few 
minutes before "stand to," or "stand to arms," 
as it is officially termed, that is, just before dusk; 
and as I was making for the communication- 
trench to go out I was nearly scared out of my 
wits by a "strafe" which started as a prelimi- 
nary to a raid which occurred a few minutes 
later. This raid was not on my immediate 



24 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

front, but about a quarter of a mile farther 
south, opposite Laventie, and was staged by 
the Irish Guards. The abrupt change from 
more or less intermittent fire between the 
trenches to a violent and constant bombard- 
ment from every machine-gun, trench-mortar, 
rifle-grenade, and other weapon in the trenches, 
joined at the same time by the howitzers and 
guns from one to three miles back of the lines, 
combined to make me feel as though "hell had 
broken loose," and I made for the nearest dug- 
out with as much assumption of dignity and 
speed as any near-soldier could effectively com- 
bine. It was only then that I fully realized 
that there was a war on. 

I have been in numerous bombardments of 
this nature preceding night raids since that time, 
and they are always peculiarly violent, but I 
never recall any occasion on which I was more 
badly scared. It was rather curious, too, be- 
cause nearly all the fire was from our own 
trenches at first, and the German retaliation 
did not come until some time after; but all 
our trench-mortars and other shells from the 
back just skimmed our parapets so closely that 
they certainly "put the wind up" me in more 



TO THE FRONT 25 

senses than one. One's first raid, anyhow, is 
calculated to be more exciting than a pink 
tea-party. "Put the wind up" is a term which 
requires some explanation. The Tommies use 
it on every occasion when a man shows fear; 
they say he is "windy" or "has the wind up," 
until now it is an essential part of the trench 
language. 

Enemy rifle and machine-gun fire was very 
heavy and we had our share of casualties in 
this way. One of our advanced billets, Two 
Tree Farm, was an unhealthy spot. The 
Boche had several rifles trained on the en- 
trance to this old ruin and the bullets whistled 
by about shoulder-high regularly through the 
night across this spot. It was not a favorite 
place for nightly gossip. We had built a 
wooden track from near here right up to the 
front line and would each night tram up our 
timber and supplies on this light track. We 
had plenty of grief when our trolleys would 
slip off the rails and into a foot or two of mud 
alongside. At one of these times I was going 
up with supplies and the enemy were getting 
us taped nicely with their machine-gun fire. 
Several attached infantrymen were working 



26 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

with us. One lad who was working particu* 
larly hard came around to the back to give us 
an extra hand in getting the car on the track 
again, and dropped quietly into the mud without 
a sound with a bullet through his head. We 
used to figure on two or three casualties a night 
on this tram. On going in or out we had to 
walk from Two Tree Farm over a stretch of 
level ground about a quarter of a mile before 
we entered V. C. Avenue, the communication- 
trench. This was not a pleasant walk on ac- 
count of the absence of cover and the rain of 
machine-gun and rifle fire which swept this 
area. 



CHAPTER III 
UNDERGROUND 

THE trenches in Flanders consist, in 
the front line at least, of sand-bag 
breastworks, and are not regular 
trenches at all. The country is so flat that it 
would be impossible to drain properly a series 
of trenches cut in the original soil. As a result 
of the lack of drainage, the consequent diffi- 
culties and hardships can be well understood. 
Each night the enemy would tear big holes in 
our breastworks in the front line, and we would 
have to duck and run past them on the follow- 
ing day, and at night repair them again, under 
their machine-gun fire. The fact that their 
snipers and machine-gunners had the gap well 
taped in the daytime didn't add to our pleasure 
in repairing them at night. 

The trenches on our company front here, 
which included underground galleries emanat- 
ing from about 16 different shafts, or mine- 
heads, on about a half-mile front, averaged 

27 



28 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

from 70 to 120 yards distance from the enemy. 
As the water-level was about 25 feet, the un- 
derground tunnels were shallow, mostly about 
20 feet in depth. Many of our mines would 
be entirely flooded out, and it was only by 
constant and energetic work on the hand-pumps 
that we kept the water down in the existing 
galleries. It was a common thing for us to 
have to wade in rubber hip-boots through 
tunnels with over a foot of water in them. We 
worked in these mines twenty-four hours of 
the day, Sundays and holidays — in fact, no 
one knew when a Sunday came around, every 
day being the same in the trenches. Every 
officer and non-commissioned officer knows the 
date, however, as numerous and elaborate 
progress and other reports were furnished to 
the staff daily. The "padres," or chaplains, 
sometimes reminded us of the fact that Sun- 
days do occur when we were out in billets back 
of the line. We worked usually three shifts 
of eight hours each, and all of our timber and 
tools, the latter of the most primitive kind, 
rendered necessary under the unusual circum- 
stances, were brought up at night by company 
trucks to our advanced billets, which were 



UNDERGROUND 29 

situated about a mile behind the front line, 
and close to the entrance of communication- 
trenches. 

The enemy had started his underground min- 
ing operations several months before they were 
discovered by the British and had caused many 
casualties in the ranks of the infantry; in fact 
this was the case everywhere on the western 
front, both in the British and French lines. 
The Hun has a text-book rule which enjoins 
him to start underground operations from any 
trenches which are not farther than 100 metres 
from the enemy, and in many cases where the 
distance exceeded this, or where he wished to 
specially defend any observation-posts, ma- 
chine-gun posts, or strong points of tactical 
advantage, he would commence mining from 
trenches still farther distant. 

Handicapped as were the British and French 
from this cause, they have succeeded by ener- 
getic and daring work since that time in more 
than outmatching the enemy below ground, 
until now mining beneath the trenches no longer 
consists, as it did then, in almost exclusively 
defensive operations. Of its use as an offensive 
measure, the launching of the attack in the 



3 o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

battle of Messines last year serves as an ex- 
cellent illustration. 

In our part of the line at Fromelles, however, 
at that time the Germans had succeeded in 
exploding many mines with disastrous effect 
under our trenches, with the resulting loss of 
life of many infantrymen and some engineers, 
and in our early operations they gave us much 
cause for concern. They "blew," that is, ex- 
ploded mines, under several of our shaft-houses 
or mine-shafts whilst the latter were under 
construction, and destroyed several of our 
galleries before we could get within striking 
distance of them. When I joined the company, 
many of our shafts had been constructed and 
a considerable footage of galleries completed. 
In this work below ground in clay it was neces- 
sary, of course, to be as quiet as possible so 
that the Germans could not locate our exact 
position. Of the fact that we were engaged in 
counter-mining, and that they were mining 
also, every one on both sides of No Man's 
Land was aware, but the point was to keep 
the Hun guessing as to our exact whereabouts 
while we discovered all we could about his. 
Many devices were employed both by the 



UNDERGROUND 31 

enemy and ourselves to try and fool the other. 
Our lives and the lives of the men on top de- 
pended on our success in outwitting them. 
Silence below ground was absolutely essential, 
and every possible precaution to secure this was 
rigorously insisted on. When we approached, 
as we often did, in these clay galleries, to within 
three or four feet, before firing our mines, the 
men underground would work without boots, 
often without lights; blankets would be hung 
at different places along the galleries to drown 
noise; the floors of the tunnels covered with 
sand-bags; all timbering done by wedging, no 
nails being allowed in construction, screws being 
used instead, and any and every other device 
thought of to prevent noise adopted. 

On many occasions, and particularly when 
engaged in loading a mine-charge (work al- 
ways done by the officers), connecting up the 
detonators or electric leads necessary, etc., 
when within a few feet of the enemy, and when 
at the same time we could hear them plainly 
at work, and were convinced they were em- 
ployed, by the sound, on the same errand as 
ourselves; namely, laying a charge of high 
explosives with which to blow us to eternity, 



32 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

some crazy sapper would fail to stifle a cough 
or subdue some throat trouble. We always 
felt inclined to brain these chaps with any- 
thing handy, although, poor fellows, they were 
doing their best to be quiet. Luck certainly 
was with us on these occasions, and not in one 
instance in our work in Flanders did the Ger- 
mans succeed in blowing us when we had more 
than one or two men underground at the time. 
How we escaped I don't know. I am sure it 
was only by the exercise of great care and good 
judgment, a lot of luck and a kind Providence. 
Farther south in the chalk country of France 
everybody below was killed by the resulting 
concussion, or poisonous gas, which developed 
on several occasions when the enemy caught us. 
The "jumpiness" which all new troops are 
subject to at first had its influence on us, as on 
the troops above ground; and in the month or 
two previous to my joining the company some- 
times a mine had been fired when probably by 
delaying it a little longer we might have se- 
cured more satisfactory results in damage and 
casualties to the enemy. That condition, how- 
ever, wore off and we very seldom blew any 
mine unless we had the most certain evidence 



UNDERGROUND 33 

that we could get a good toll of Germans. We 
would frequently hold our mines for several 
days or a week or two, and when the listeners 
reported that the enemy could be heard in 
sufficient number in their tunnels just near 
our charges, we would connect our double set 
of electric leads to dynamo exploders or blast- 
ing-machines, push the handles home hard, 
and lift them to a higher sphere of operations. 

Our galleries in the clay were for the most 
part from four and a half to five feet in height 
and from thirty inches to three feet in width, 
with numerous listening-tunnels, or "rabbit- 
holes," in size three feet by two, leading off 
them as we approached the enemy lines. 

It was our practice to build a rough mine- 
chamber or shelter, constructed of walls of 
sand-bags filled with clay with a few corner- 
posts of wood, and to cover this shelter with 
a sheet or two of corrugated iron and some- 
times a layer of sand-bags. 

These chambers were built usually at from 
ten to twenty feet back of the sand-bag 
breastworks which formed our only protection 
from enemy fire. From these so-called mine- 
chambers we sank vertical telescope-shafts, 



34 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

sometimes using case-timbers, and sometimes 
collar-sets with logging or spiling driven in 
behind. In Flanders, where only these sur- 
face shelters can be built, we would usually 
construct a dugout alongside or connected 
with a mine-chamber. In the trenches farther 
south we used the deep dugouts, twenty or 
thirty feet deep, and often started our systems 
of tunnels or galleries from them. 

Much difficulty was experienced in sinking 
these shafts. On account of the shallow water, 
level pumps were resorted to at once, often 
two or three being necessary to keep the water 
down. With constant pumping and digging 
we attained depths of from twenty to twenty- 
five feet below the surface. At the bottom 
of the shaft we put in sumps from which to 
pump the water, and then proceeded to drive 
our galleries ahead. For the smaller tunnels 
we used two-inch case-timbers or small timber- 
sets and excavated the clay with small, specially 
constructed shovels which we called "graft- 
ing-tools." 

The man in the face would lie with his back 
across a plank stretcher placed across the near- 
est timber set, and would work the grafting- 



UNDERGROUND 35 

tool with his heel, whilst a second man would 
very carefully shovel the dirt into sand-bags, 
and pass them when filled to the man behind 
him. The latter would in turn pass the sand- 
bags along to other men as far as the foot of 
the shaft, when the bags would be attached 
to a rope and hauled to the surface by means 
of a rough prospector's windlass. 

As the work progressed we would often screw 
wooden rails to the floors of galleries, and then 
use small rubber-tired trolleys or cars to move 
our sand-bags from the face. 

During the cold, damp winter of 1915-1916 
we could always get warmed up by going be- 
low. In the chalk-mines in the succeeding 
summer it was also quite pleasant to go below 
and cool off. The men working underground 
were certainly lucky in this respect. Down 
below, the rumble of the shelling overhead 
could be very distinctly heard, and it inter- 
fered much with our efFective listening to enemy 
mining operations. It was a great relief some- 
times though to get away from the ear-splitting 
Kr-r-r-umps all around. 

In the "rabbit-holes" we were, of course, 
obliged to crawl on our hands and knees, and 



36 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

would spend many long hours listening to 
enemy work, which we heard close to us in 
these "rabbit-holes" most of the time. 

Despite all attempts, it was impossible to 
keep these holes dry. I can remember several 
occasions when I was so thoroughly dead beat 
and "all in" that for a few minutes I dozed 
or slept whilst listening, incidentally lying in 
several inches of water, and only a few feet 
from the enemy's work. It was necessary for 
us to have experienced "listeners" to keep in 
touch at all times with the progress of enemy 
work whilst our own was going on, and naturally 
the officers on duty had to do a large part of 
this to satisfy themselves. Regular reports 
were kept in the dugouts on the surface as to 
the enemy's activity in every direction, and 
these were carefully studied and plotted on 
maps by all subalterns when relieving. Our 
dugouts, as they were called, although they 
differed very much from the more or less elabo- 
rate dugouts which we now use farther south in 
France, were really only splinter-proof shelters, 
and consisted of walls of sand-bags with a sheet 
of corrugated iron on top, and one or two rows 
of sand-bags on that. A direct hit of any kind 



UNDERGROUND 37 

was fatal to all occupants. Many hours 
have I spent in those dugouts with trench 
mortars and shells dropping all around, and 
wondering whether their next mortar was going 
to crack our "egg-shell" of a shelter. How- 
ever, when things got too hot, we had a big 
advantage over the infantry in the fact that we 
could suddenly recollect at these times some 
very important work twenty feet below ground 
in our mines which demanded our immediate 
attention. Like the infantry, though, we were 
of a rather fatalistic turn of mind, and usually 
trusted to our luck. One of the half-dozen 
men who came over to the trenches from Eng- 
land with me was unfortunate enough to be 
caught in a dugout of this description the very 
first time he entered the trenches, a mile or two 
down the line from us, when a "rum-jar" 
landed on it. Another officer with him at the 
time was killed, and several men also, but he 
got off with a bad head wound which sent him 
back to an English hospital for a few months. 
Near us was an infantry company headquarters' 
dugout and we would go there for a little change 
from time to time. When fate was kind to us 
we would share some very decent meals to- 



38 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

gether, usually the contents of some one's par- 
cels from England. 

These meals were not served in "Palais 
Royal" style, and often fingers were employed 
in lieu of forks, but nevertheless we had some 
merry times. Humor and tragedy touch elbows 
in the trenches. A man is laughing one min- 
ute — the next he is lying dead with a bullet 
crashed through his heart or brain; or what is 
more usual and worse to the survivors, with 
his body so mutilated that it is difficult to find 
enough of his pitiful remains to bury. So it 
was with us. We would wear that anxious 
look occasionally when Fritz would lob over 
some form of frightfulness which landed very 
close to us; but it seldom disturbed us for long. 
One night I had accepted an invitation to dinner 
with some friends of a very famous old British 
regiment, the Rifle Brigade, who were garrison- 
ing the trenches we were in. The company 
commander was a young man about twenty- 
three, one of the very finest types of the old 
British regular army officer, and we had been 
very good friends. Friendships are made 
quickly under such circumstances. We had 
"blown" a mine the previous evening, and it 



UNDERGROUND 39 

was the duty of the infantry here to wire the 
crater formed by the explosion. The mine 
had been blown as a defensive measure in pre- 
venting the wily Hun from coming closer to 
this point underground and was located about 
midway between the trenches in No Man's 
Land. While we were at dinner, a runner re- 
ported that one of Captain G.'s corporals had 
been wounded while finishing some work on 
the wire. 

Notwithstanding the fact that even at this 
time orders were in effect that no infantry com- 
pany commander should go into No Man's 
Land unless in emergency or on a regular at- 
tack, my gallant friend, Captain G., at once got 
up from dinner and said he was going out to 
bring his corporal in. We endeavored to dis- 
suade him, and suggested the usual course of 
sending out the company's stretcher-bearers to 
get the man in. He would not listen, but hur- 
ried out. Climbing over the slimy parapet he 
attempted to reach the wounded corporal, but 
was shot through the head just as he reached 
the edge of the crater. Two stretcher-bearers 
at once went out and were also shot in a minute 
or two. Two of his subalterns then very cau- 



4 o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

tiously proceeded to go out through one of the 
cunningly devised "sally ports" which issue at 
frequent intervals from the breastworks out 
to No Man's Land, recovered the bodies, and 
brought in the wounded corporal. The loss 
of this fine officer made a great impression on 
me at the time, but so many incidents of a 
similar nature were constantly happening that 
one becomes callous in time without sensing it. 
I only know that if one gave way to his feelings 
his nerves would shortly break, and his useful- 
ness would be ended — a somewhat brutal 
philosophy, but necessary in a war such as this 
that the German fiends have forced upon us. 

By night we would get rid of our spoil or 
clay from the underground workings, dumping 
them from sand-bags or gunny sacks into shell- 
holes, mine-craters, abandoned trenches, de- 
pressions in the ground, behind hedges, and in 
other places offering some concealment from 
enemy observation. This work was all done 
under the enemy's machine-gun and rifle fire. 
Both we and the Boche would fire the "Very" 
or star lights at more or less regular intervals 
during the night; the enemy much more fre- 
quently than we; and the parties or individuals 



UNDERGROUND 41 

working on top would have to be very careful 
when they happened to come within the range 
of these ghostly silver flares. Usually it was 
sufficient if one kept quite still, but where 
trenches are very close and the light drops 
behind you and throws your figure into relief, 
the wise course is to immediately drop flat and 
remain motionless. It isn't quite so easy as 
one might imagine to stand still on these occa- 
sions; but it is quite effective. Any movement 
of a soldier is spotted in an instant, and at once 
every sniper and machine-gun operator, con- 
stantly on the alert on the enemy parapet, 
opens fire. One night I was working with my 
men on top in this way disposing of our sand- 
bags, and I noticed an infantry officer with a 
party of four men placing sand-bags on top of 
a dugout near us. An enemy "Very" light 
flashed over and behind us, throwing all of our 
figures into relief. We dropped pronto, as did 
the men with the infantry officer, but he, poor 
chap, then only three days in the trenches, was 
too slow, and got a bullet square through his 
head. It is strange to note the confidence with 
which men will work on top of the trenches at 
night after a little experience. At first it seems 



42 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

impossible that the enemy machine-guns can 
miss you in their frequent and thorough trav- 
erse or sweeps of the lines opposite them, but 
you gradually gain confidence and find that, 
unless you expose yourself carelessly by mov- 
ing when their lights go up in your neighbor- 
hood, you usually get off scot-free. 

There are many complaints of the monotony 
of trench life, and certainly some of them are 
well founded, but in our work there was not 
much room for monotony. 

During my first month or two I was intensely 
interested in every weapon that the British 
were using, and whenever a machine-gun, 
trench-mortar, grenade, or sniper officer was 
about to start a "shoot" in my sector, I was 
invariably invited to witness the affair and 
learned to operate them all in time, much to 
my satisfaction. My particular delight con- 
sisted in using a Vickers machine-gun at night 
in traversing up and down the enemy's com- 
munication-trenches. I guess we soon acquire 
bloodthirstiness; at any rate, one develops 
without conscious effort an instinct to "strafe 
the Hun," not only on general principles, but 
particularly to avenge the loss of comrades. 



UNDERGROUND 43 

The artillerymen share this feeling; the F. O. O., 
or forward observing officers, for each artillery 
battery, can be found prowling around the 
trenches at all times, searching the enemy's 
lines with their powerful field-glasses for tar- 
gets, and continually discussing the possibilities 
of new ones with the infantry and engineers in 
the lines; and at nearly all times lamenting 
the fact that they can get nothing to shoot at. 
While we were here they sent us a bantam 
division to relieve the old division. These 
little fellows, hardly a man of them being over 
five feet two inches in height, were certainly 
not short of pluck. Nearly all of their officers 
by way of contrast were exceptionally big men, 
all over six feet. It was very amusing to see 
the bantams climbing on to their fire-steps 
and building up sand-bags to step on so they 
could see well over the parapet. It's a useful 
thing, anyway, to be short in trench warfare. 
You don't have to duck so much. 



CHAPTER IV 
CRATER FIGHTING 

A S it was a rare day for us in Flanders 
r^\ when the enemy or ourselves did not 
- "blow" a mine, we were always on 

our toes. Except in cases of sudden emergency 
we informed the infantry of our intention to 
fire a mine, and gave them the time necessary 
to withdraw their men to points of safety. 
Often we would blow a mine at night in co- 
operation with the infantry so that they might 
at once rush out and "consolidate" the crater, 
or the nearest lip or rim of the crater. Certain 
positions in No Man's Land were particularly 
desirable on account of their strategic value; 
sometimes for the purpose of enfilading the 
enemy's trenches by occupying one rim of the 
crater; or perhaps for the obtaining of better 
observation-points, or for any other reason. 
The consolidation of these craters is a wonder- 
fully stirring business. A little explanation of 
a crater might help. 

The engineers fire large charges of high ex- 

44 



CRATER FIGHTING 45 

plosives from underground galleries, at a depth 
of anything from 20 to 200 feet, with the re- 
sult that a huge hole is blown in the ground 
in the shape of an inverted cone, like the aver- 
age shell-hole, but very much wider and deeper. 
No Man's Land in front of us, where the 
trenches are close, is pitted with great num- 
bers of these craters, some blown by the Ger- 
mans and some by us. The craters vary from 
the small ones, about 70 or 80 feet in diameter 
and 12 to 20 feet deep, to larger ones to such 
dimensions as 300 feet in diameter and up to 
120 or 130 feet deep. The size, of course, de- 
pends on the charge of high explosives used, 
the depth of the mine-galleries, and the soil 
one springs the mine in. 

The enemy is usually just as concerned with 
the consolidation of the rim or lip of the crater 
on their side as we are with ours, and a battle 
royal for their occupation results. Machine- 
guns on both sides concentrate fire on the crater 
almost before the debris from the explosion have 
had time to fall. It is a weird and wonderful 
sight. From a fairly calm night, usually with 
only desultory fire going on, the thunderclap 
comes. Before firing, which is usually done 



46 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

electrically, the engineers calculate the exact 
diameter of the crater to be formed, and the 
previous night the infantry or engineers will 
have completed a trench forward from the 
front-line or "jumping-off" trench, to an inter- 
section with the rim of the proposed crater. 
Directly the charge has been fired, they rush 
out through this trench and hastily throw up 
breastworks on the lip of the crater formed. 
The machine-gunners take up proper offensive 
and defensive positions; the bombers, usually 
at the head and the flank of the "throw-up," 
or lip, erect the wire screens necessary for their 
temporary protection; the "wire" men place 
their barbed wire around the portion to be con- 
solidated; and all ranks dig themselves in as 
fast as they can, later bringing up such timber 
or other material as they can to strengthen the 
positions. When it is planned to hold the 
whole of the crater, the "wire" men completely 
encircle it with entanglements, and the Lewis 
gunners and bombers make such changes in 
disposition as are necessary. This represents 
the usual procedure when a crater is blown in 
No Man's Land. Thousands of these craters 
are so exploded. 



CRATER FIGHTING 47 

On numerous other occasions, when we have 
penetrated below the surface with our under- 
ground galleries under and across No Man's 
Land to below the Germans' front-line trenches 
(and in many cases we go as far as their support 
lines without being discovered), our little 
affairs are accompanied by infantry raids. 
Pandemonium reigns supreme at these times, 
and nothing can be likened to the noise and 
apparent confusion in which these usually 
very successful raids are conducted. We fire 
our mines under their trenches and the in- 
fantry raiding-parties immediately cross and 
clean up any Germans we might have missed 
with our attentions. As a result of our noise- 
less work below in the clay, we would occasion- 
ally break through into each other's galleries. 

Perhaps you would be interested in an under- 
ground fight which we had with the Boche in 
one of our galleries twenty feet below the sur- 
face under these trenches. Some two weeks 
before this we had successfully blown a mine, 
and two days later had discovered and worked 
through the broken German gallery we had 
destroyed. Passing through this gallery, we 
continued our silent work in the clay, and about 



48 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

fifty feet farther turned off to the left in order 
to strike what we thought would be the enemy's 
main defensive gallery. Our miners who were 
working at this face hurriedly sent up word one 
morning to our dugout on top, just off the shaft- 
house, that they had broken into the German 
gallery with a small hole in the clay. All 
men working underground had standing orders 
that if this occurred at any time they should 
at once put out their candles, observe strict 
silence, plug up the hole with clay, and report 
forthwith to the officer on duty. Warning all 
men to leave the near-by workings below, the 
officer on duty hurried down to the spot, 
stopped long enough in our main gallery to 
make up a mobile, or portable, charge of thirty 
pounds of gun-cotton from our magazine, which 
we had established there for just such emer- 
gencies, then proceeded with the utmost care 
to the gallery mentioned. Lieutenant G. had 
connected up a dry guncotton primer to the 
charge, inserted a detonator attached to a 
short piece of safety-fuse, which latter would 
burn for about two minutes before detonating 
the charge. The men had noticed and heard 
three, certainly, and probably more, Germans 



CRATER FIGHTING 49 

at work in their gallery, which was lighted 
with electric light. Lieutenant G., accom- 
panied by another officer, very carefully with- 
drew the clay plug, enlarged the hole, slid the 
box containing the charge into the enemy gal- 
lery, lit the fuse, and swiftly and quietly with- 
drew from the scene. He reached safely the 
main gallery, quite a distance from the charge, 
in time to hear the explosion. He then climbed 
quickly to the top to escape the resulting fatal 
gases developed by the detonation of the high 
explosives. 

I arrived on the scene a few minutes later 
and my section commander asked me if I was 
"game enough," as he described it, to go be- 
low with a sapper to investigate the damage 
done and see how many Germans we had 
accounted for. I was very willing; so Doherty, 
the sapper mentioned, and myself equipped 
ourselves with the "Proto" oxygen breathing- 
apparatus necessary in going into "gassy" 
galleries, then descended, carrying also the usual 
canary in a cage to test the air. The canary 
soon toppled off his perch and fell dead to the 
floor of his cage. Canaries and white mice 
are used in large numbers to detect the presence 



50 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

of poisonous gases below, and, being very sus- 
ceptible to bad air, are soon killed. [It is a 
curious sight to see these canaries hung up 
outside dugouts in all trenches where mining 
operations are conducted.] Both Doherty and 
I had previously been trained in the use of the 
oxygen apparatus, and were quite confident of 
its ability to take care of the carbon monoxide 
so that it would not affect our lungs. Before 
we reached the enemy gallery, I stopped long 
enough to pick up and carry with me the air- 
hose, and this I left later in the enemy's work- 
ings so that our men on top could pump good 
air in and allow others down in a short time to 
resume the offensive. We reached the gallery, 
found the remains of three Boches that "G." 
had "sent west" with his charge of gun- 
cotton, then proceeded to investigate the dam- 
age done. As the enemy gallery was very 
closely timbered, we had only broken down a 
portion of it with the charge employed. On 
entering their gallery, I had carefully searched 
for and cut all wires that I found there. This 
was a regular practice with us, the object being 
to sever all electric leads, wires, or fuses which 
the enemy may have left connected to a charge 
or mine already laid. 







Breathing-apparatus necessary in going into "gassy" galleries. 



CRATER FIGHTING 51 

On breaking into any of these galleries the 
officer in charge usually enlarges the holes in 
the clay until he can put his arm through; 
feels around until he finds any wires, and 
promptly cuts them with his pliers. Such 
operations of necessity must be done in dark- 
ness and without sound, and one's heart is 
working like a pump-handle. I was agreeably 
surprised to find that no Germans had sum- 
moned courage enough to investigate matters as 
we were doing; Doherty, however, did not share 
my sentiments, and gave me the impression as 
best he could, enveloped in the oxygen appara- 
tus as he was, that he distinctly regretted their 
lack of sand. We were both armed with elec- 
tric-torches and revolvers, but we were not 
keen on using them oftener than necessary, 
and so advertising our presence. After leav- 
ing the air-hose and noting results, I picked up 
the cap of one of the defunct Germans, and we 
came out, or rather crawled out. Our progress 
was mostly in the form of a crawl, and the steel 
oxygen cylinders knocking against the timber 
sets in the narrow galleries as we proceeded did 
not improve our tempers. 

We arrived safely back to the surface and I 
made my report. After pumping air into the 



52 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

gallery for about an hour, we all went below 
again, and my section commander and Lieu- 
tenant G. crawled through to examine condi- 
tions in the enemy's gallery, while I was en- 
gaged in the magazine in opening boxes of gun- 
cotton and getting more primers and detona- 
tors ready for action. Captain B., the section 
commander, came back presently and informed 
me that he and G. had been slightly gassed 
during their investigation of the enemy tunnel, 
but had not met any Boche; he h:id decided 
on making up some raiding-parties, would 
arm them with mobile charges; attempt to 
explore the German gallery and mine system, 
and, if possible, try and destroy their shaft. 
The difficulties of proceeding farther into the 
German galleries, now that the enemy was 
thoroughly aroused, were pretty large, but we 
agreed with him that it was up to us to get 
them somehow if we had a possible chance. 
We made up three of these parties at once; 
each composed of one officer, one non-com- 
missioned officer, and two sappers; each party 
armed with revolvers and a mobile charge of 
thirty pounds of guncotton, the latter being 
carried in boxes. Each of the sappers pro- 



CRATER FIGHTING 53 

vided himself with a couple of Mills bombs, 
their confidence in these useful little articles 
on all occasions being quite touching. 

It was arranged that Captain B. should 
station himself at the junction of our gallery 
with that of the Boche, and if our plans looked 
like coming "unstuck" he would blow his 
whistle hard. On this signal we would all 
hustle back to our own galleries and shaft-head 
as quickly as possible. "The plans of mice and 
men gang aft agley" and our luck was not good 
on this stunt. The other two officers were 
senior to me and, as usual in such circum- 
stances, resolutely insisted on their right to 
take their parties in first. It was rather an 
exceptional affair, our breaking into an enemy 
gallery, as in most cases either the enemy or 
ourselves would have fired their mines when 
within striking distance of each other, so all 
the men were very keen on it. In my own case, 
I was so keyed up with excitement that I en- 
tirely forgot a bad toothache that I had — re- 
sulting from an abscess under a large molar — 
and these things are usually pretty difficult to 
forget, even in the trenches. Well, the first 
two parties passed quietly into the enemy's 



54 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

gallery; and just as I was about to lead my 
own party in, Captain B. blew his signal whistle, 
and, according to instructions, I took myself 
and party back to our own shaft-head, followed 
soon by the men of the other parties; last of 
all by the other two officers, who had entered 
the enemy gallery first. Our plan had come 
"unstuck." It developed that the first two 
parties had managed to get in a short distance 
before meeting any opposition, but that the 
Boches had then opened fire on them, and they 
had stopped just long enough to return a few 
revolver shots, set light to the fuses on their 
two mobile charges, and run for it. Altogether 
this last attempt had not been very successful, 
though we fortunately had no casualties. 

I was again asked to go below with Doherty 
in breathing-apparatus and see what effect the 
firing of these two last charges had made on 
the gallery. We did so, but found no living 
Germans prowling round in the tunnel. We 
left the air-hose this time farther up their more 
or less destroyed workings, and reported that, 
after pumping, we could get down soon again 
to resume operations. For the time we posted 
six sappers and a non-commissioned officer 



CRATER FIGHTING 55 

near the enemy's entrance to cover any en- 
deavor on the part of the latter to get through 
into our galleries. They did not attempt to 
do so; in fact, they didn't seem to care much 
about going near the place — which fact per- 
haps proved fortunate for D. and myself, 
though I knew that fine little Irishman was 
aching for a scrap with them. 

In an hour or so, when the poisonous gas had 
again been blown out and fresh air pumped in, 
Lieutenant G. and I, being rather concerned 
over the possibility of the enemy trying to 
pump in gas on our men below ground, decided 
to go in on our own initiative and see what 
we could do. We proceeded below, armed 
each with revolver and torch, and were followed 
by another officer, Lieutenant B., carrying a 
mobile charge, and a sapper with a second. 
We walked and crawled very quietly and cau- 
tiously until we reached a point about 150 feet 
up the enemy gallery; here I suggested to G. 
that it would be decidedly unwise to try to 
get any farther; the electric lights still alight 
in the gallery were just a few feet ahead of 
us, and we could distinguish the sounds of 
whispering and stealthy walking very near. 



56 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

In crawling in we had, of course, used our 
torches as little as possible. If I had not per- 
suaded G. as to the wisdom of my advice, I 
believe he would have attempted to go right 
up to the German shaft-head. I walked back 
a little way along the gallery, signalled Lieu- 
tenant B. and the sapper to hand me the gun- 
cotton charges; then instructed them to clear 
out. 

We decided to fire the charges at this point; 
so after collecting, with great care to avoid 
noise, a number of sand-bags filled with clay 
which the Germans had left in this gallery, we 
used these for tamping the charge and G. lit 
the fuse while I covered the gallery with my 
revolver. G. said "hold on a minute while I 
get a souvenir," and promptly grabbed a five- 
foot length of three-inch air-pipe which the 
Germans used in their work, while I picked up 
a few empty multicolored sand-bags of the 
kind favored by the Boche miner. 

The shortness of our safety-fuse was also a 
strong factor in preventing us from going 
farther. It would burn about two minutes, 
and in these two minutes we had to crawl and 
squirm through some very awkward sections 



CRATER FIGHTING 57 

in the galleries. In two places there was only 
room enough for our bodies to scrape through. 
The timber and clay had been destroyed in 
several places, and it was difficult at these 
spots to get through without bringing in some 
more timber sets or invite clay falls which 
would have imprisoned us with the charge. 
Death as the result of an overdose of carbon 
monoxide is not so bad, as one just drops into 
a gentle and insidious sleep from which you 
fail to wake; but the concussion resulting from 
the detonation of the charge is not such a pleas- 
ant affair. We fortunately reached a spot of 
comparative safety just in time to hear the 
detonation of the charges. Afterward we 
climbed to the surface. 

I went below again after a half-hour had 
elapsed; this time without the oxygen appa- 
ratus, as I was physically too weak to carry 
its forty pounds again. Another sapper went 
down with me, wearing the Proto apparatus, 
and I leading with a rope around me in case I 
should be gassed and have to be pulled out. 
The lad who came with me was not of the same 
stuff as D.; once, whilst I was crawling ahead 
of him, I knelt on a piece of broken timber; 



58 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

it made a sharp noise, much like the crack of 
a revolver, and this rather disconcerted him. 
He soon recovered, however. No Germans 
were in evidence. If there were any in their 
tunnels they were mighty quiet. 

This was a busy day for me. I must have 
had that "rabbit's foot" around my neck in 
going down first after the charges three times 
and coming out with a whole skin. We could 
not quite reach the advanced spot where we 
had fired the gallery; although near enough. I 
was gassed a little on this trip. Some two hours 
later, having prepared a large charge of gun- 
cotton, we went below and laid it. During the 
process, the enemy, gathering their courage, 
had come back to their gallery and, having 
cleared some of the debris away, fired a number 
of shots at our fellows whilst they were loading. 
We fired the mine in the usual way, by means of 
blasting machine from our dugout. This dug- 
out was built with an entrance leading off to the 
mine shaft. We thought our troubles were 
over for a while anyhow, and four of our men 
carelessly remained in the dugout, talking and 
smoking for some ten minutes or so after firing. 
One of them happened to look up around the 



CRATER FIGHTING 59 

dugout, and noticed that all the canaries which 
we kept there at night, in some four cages, had 
toppled from their perches and were lying with 
their feet sticking in the air. With one bound 
they reached the dugout entrance and fresh 
air, realizing that the poisonous gas must have 
come up the shaft before penetrating to the dug- 
out. Poor Captain B. was rather badly gassed 
and was carried away on a stretcher. He 
recovered, however, after a few days at the 
nearest C. C. S. Am glad to record that Lieu- 
tenant G. received the Military Cross for his 
share in these operations, and Captain B. the 
D. S. O. 

On many occasions the British Tunnelling 
Companies have outwitted the cunning Hun. 
Here is one instance. The British miners broke 
into an enemy's gallery in clay and struck the 
tamping of a charge they had laid and were 
holding ready to fire. This tamping consisted 
of clay bags built up in galleries back of the 
charge in order to confine and intensify the 
explosion. Working through the tamping, the 
sappers reached a mine charge of about 4,000 
pounds of westphalite, one of the various Ger- 
man high explosives. Carefully extracting 



6o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

this, they connected up the enemy's leads to 
one of their blasting caps to insure non-detec- 
tion for electric continuity, and then with- 
drew. What the Hun mining officer said and 
felt, when he attempted to fire his mine, may 
be left to the imagination. 



CHAPTER V 

TUNNELLING IN THE VIMY RIDGE 
TRENCHES 

IN April, 1916, we were relieved of our work 
in Flanders, and ordered to move down to 
trenches some thirty miles farther south, 
to the chalk country of Artois. The new 
trenches were near Neuville-St.-Vaast, and 
about a half-mile south of the famous Vimy 
Ridge. The British at that time had just 
taken over another portion of the French line 
extending down as far as Peronne, in the Somme 
district and the infantry holding our part of 
the line at Neuville-St.-Vaast had relieved the 
French infantry only a few weeks previously. 
We were to relieve the French Territorial sap- 
pers. Mighty glad they must have been to 
hand this troublesome sector over to us, but no 
evidence of this was to be seen in their charac- 
teristic casual and matter-of-fact attitude. We 
moved down in the usual way. The A. S. C. 

61 



62 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

(Army Service Corps) furnished us with thirteen 
buses to take our men down, while the officers 
rode down in advance on motorcycles. I was 
detailed to take charge of the convoy of buses, 
and accompanied them on a motorcycle. Our 
fellows were all in high spirits at the prospects 
of a change, and the stops were many. The 
natural consequence was that I had my troubles 
in keeping the men from patronizing too liber- 
ally the many inviting estaminets on the road 
down. 

After having spent several months in so- 
called rest-billets pretty close to the line and 
shelled regularly, we were all immensely pleased 
to find that our new rest-camp was to be situ- 
ated in a very pretty little village named Berles, 
near Aubigny, and some eight miles from the 
firing-line. This camp, of course, was only 
intended as a rest-camp, and billets for only a 
quarter to a third of the company were neces- 
sary, as this represented the number of men 
who would be on rest at any one time. We 
soon made acquaintance with our advance 
billets, and these were close enough, being only 
a mile behind. Captain M. had preceded us 
to Berles as the billeting officer. The officer 



THE VIMY RIDGE TRENCHES 63 

who talks French best is usually the man for 
this job, and he always does very well for him- 
self when it comes to picking his own billet, 
having first choice. Incidentally it may be 
remarked the man who talks French well al- 
ways has the edge on the other fellows. The 
usual old-fashioned and picturesque farmhouse 
furnished us with a room for a mess. We 
looked out from this mess-room on to the in- 
evitable midden which is a feature of all the 
French farmhouses in this part of the world. 
The buildings of these farms are always ar- 
ranged in the form of a square, with the house 
on one side, and barns, stables, and granaries 
on the other three sides all enclosing a yard in 
the middle of which is invariably a very filthy 
pool. The manure from the stables is brought 
out and dumped into this yard and in addi- 
tion everything else in the way of refuse from 
the house. Needless to say, the atmosphere 
around these middens on warm days in summer 
might have been healthy, but was certainly 
not pleasant. 

We had been sent down to take over the un- 
derground mining at these trenches to meet 
what the Third Army termed "an urgent situa- 



64 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

tion." It was well described. The fact of the 
matter was that the Germans had by extraor- 
dinary underground activity succeeded in forc- 
ing the French and British to abandon the 
majority of their advanced trenches in this 
neighborhood. No Man's Land looked like 
the view one gets of a full moon as seen through 
very strong telescopes with its numerous craters 
and shell-holes. 

The aeroplane photograph shows the state 
of affairs when we reached the trenches. The 
pock-marked appearance of the ground will 
be noticed. All the smaller marks are shell- 
craters and the larger or real craters those 
formed by mine explosions. Note also how 
the Germans and British have run saps or 
trenches out to them from their front lines. 
The Germans had blown mine after mine, 
sometimes as often as 2 or 3 a day on less than 
a 500-yard front, until they had succeeded in 
making life decidedly unpleasant for the poor 
infantrymen holding these trenches. Whole 
platoons of men at a time had been engulfed 
in these terrific mine explosions, which were 
being blown at all hours, but principally at 
night. Things were so bad that, when we ar- 




Sector near Neuville-St.-Vaast, Vimy Ridge trenches; April 3, 1916. 
View taken from an airplane, showing the British and German front-line trenches and mine craters. 



THE VIMY RIDGE TRENCHES 65 

rived, the most advanced trenches were prac- 
tically abandoned, only being held by a few 
isolated groups of bombing sentries and Lewis 
gunners for a few hours at a time. The later 
aeroplane pictures show the state of affairs 
some six weeks later. By the beginning of 
July approximately twenty more craters had 
been fired by the Germans and ourselves in 
No Man's Land and the trenches adjacent. 
Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain an aero- 
plane picture taken at that time. There was 
an observation-line ahead of the firing-trench; 
most of our mine-entrances started from this 
most advanced line of trenches. On some 
occasions we were left alone underground 
without any one on top, that is, without any 
infantry. When this happened we usually 
posted our own sentries. One night when it 
happened that no sentries had been posted 
in one of our trenches, the Huns came over 
on a short and sharp raid, and actually occu- 
pied for a few minutes the trench above us 
under which we were working, while we con- 
tinued our work quite placidly below, not 
knowing what was happening on top. The 
Jocks, bombing their way through from the 



66 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

firing-line, very soon took care of them, though 
some Huns got away in the dark. 

With the exception of my experience during 
the Somme offensive, I have never seen any- 
where more corpses in the trenches than here. 
They were so numerous that one could not 
cut out a new trench thirty feet in length with- 
out unearthing as many bodies. All of them 
were six months old, and the summer was 
coming on. The barbed wire in No Man's 
Land was not a pleasant sight. Bodies were 
tangled up with it everywhere, and the wire in 
many places was supporting bodies, or at least 
skeletons, still covered with their tattered uni- 
forms. This was a gruesome sight to us when 
working at night on top — ghastly and pitiful. 
During the day the air was heavy with the 
sickening smell. The only way we could im- 
prove matters at all was by smoking hard. 
Quicklime was provided, but not used in suffi- 
cient quantities. I always felt sorry for the 
few men I ran across who did not smoke. When 
we first walked up the trenches we would notice 
what were apparently boots sticking out of the 
sides of the trenches. On closer examination 
we would find that there were feet still in them. 




The same sector, Vimy Ridge trenches, May 16, 1916. 

The same points can be easily identified on both pictures. The new mine craters show up plainly. 



THE VIMY RIDGE TRENCHES 67 

One particularly callous old Scotch sergeant of 
ours who used to lose himself frequently 
adopted the habit of chalking direction signs 
on these boots. 

Some of the dugouts were pretty bad too; 
we were not inclined to be too particular, but 
on occasions when it was just a little too 
strong we would organize search-parties to 
discover and remove the usual source of the 
trouble. 

Enemy aeroplanes were very active in this 
sector, and the Boche fliers evidently had 
sharp eyes when it came to detecting new dug- 
out or mine construction. It was necessary 
to camouflage all our spoil very carefully, other- 
wise we could always rely on these spots being 
shelled or trench-mortared quickly. There 
was much flying on moonlight nights. Search- 
lights back of our lines would pick out the 
enemy planes, and the "archies" at once get 
very busy. Usually we did not pay much at- 
tention to enemy planes, but they had a way 
of intruding themselves at times which was 
decidedly disagreeable. They would some- 
times rudely interrupt our games of cards in 
the mess back at our billets. One night they 



68 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

dropped five bombs in quick succession which 
landed within twenty yards of our Nissen hut, 
the usual corrugated-iron structure. It was not 
often that we could afford the time and ma- 
terial for dugouts at our back camps, and as 
a result the shelling and aeroplane bombing 
generally was watched with much interest. 
The flying men at the front are not "fair- 
weather" aviators. They go up under almost 
all conditions of weather. Some wonderful 
flying is seen. All the loops, etc., seem of small 
account in comparison with the daring nose 
dives, side slips, and falls of both British and 
enemy planes. Most men get the flying fever. 
I applied for transfer to the flying corps in 
May, 191 6, and was passed by the examining 
officer in the field, but fortunately, perhaps, 
for myself, my application was turned down 
by the corps, engineer officers being somewhat 
scarce at the time. 

Souvenirs of German bombs, trench mortars, 
etc., were much in demand, and some of us 
were foolish enough to take the detonators and 
charges out of "dud" T. M.'s, etc. I did this 
on several occasions, but not without taking 
every precaution possible to insure against acci- 



THE VIMY RIDGE TRENCHES 69 

dents. "Dud" shells are those which have for 
some reason not exploded because of defective 
fuse or some mistake in firing. I brought back 
with me several duds which happened to fall 
near me and did not explode. Some of the in- 
fantry seemed to think that it was a favorite 
pastime of the engineers to extract the de- 
tonators from these duds, and we would often 
take them out for them, but were at last 
obliged in self-defense to abandon such a danger- 
ous vocation. I would not handle a dud shell 
now for a million dollars. 

The difficulties of obtaining baths in these 
trenches at that time were many. The poor 
infantry would be occupying the front and re- 
serve trenches for a month or six weeks at a 
time, and it was impossible for them to ob- 
tain a bath during this whole time. This hurt 
more than anything else. We were a little 
more fortunate in the engineers, and could 
average a kind of bath about once a week when 
lucky. Our efforts to get a decent bath with 
about a half-pint of water were most amusing. 
Water was very scarce. The rats and beetles 
in the trenches were large and active and did 
not add to our pleasure. At night the rats 



7 o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

come into their own, and when times were quiet 
we would pull off some interesting rat hunts 
and incidentally get some good revolver prac- 
tice. 

Our dugouts in the Vimy Ridge were fairly 
safe, and after we had been below for a short 
time, and especially when there was a heavy 
trench-mortar "strafe" directed in the trenches 
above, it was not much fun coming out of them. 
Your heart would be in your mouth as you 
came up the steps and emerged into the black- 
ness of the trench above. After a few minutes 
in the trench, however, one would get used 
to it. 

We fell heir to a number of French shafts 
and galleries which had been driven in for a 
short distance; some of these we proceeded to 
continue, and others to abandon. Nearly all 
the German galleries and tunnels were in the 
chalk at depths varying from 80 to 150 feet be- 
low the surface. There was a top-soil of sandy 
clay averaging in thickness from 1 to 30 feet, 
covering this hard chalk. In military mining 
in chalk and clay it is important to remember 
that the work by extreme care can be con- 
ducted practically noiselessly in clay, but it is 



THE VIMY RIDGE TRENCHES 71 

almost impossible to work without noise in 
chalk, especially in the chalk of this district, 
which contained so many flints. We used the 
usual rough hand methods in tunnelling here; 
namely, the pick and shovel. The ring of the 
pick in striking a piece of flint could be heard 
by the ear for a distance of 80 feet, and with 
the listening-instruments we used to hear a 
pick up to about 200 feet. 

Our best defensive plan here was to start in 
with a strong offensive, so we proceeded to 
put in a number of tunnels in the sandy clay 
top-soil. This we did on account of the fact 
that we could work in the clay at about double 
the speed of that in chalk and, in addition, 
work noiselessly. It was a risky game on ac- 
count of the fact that the Huns were nearly 
always below us in their chalk galleries, and 
if they heard our work could quite easily fire 
their mines and rid themselves of the hated 
British. 

This district around Neuville-St.-Vaast and 
La Targette has witnessed some very hard 
fighting, and even the last terrific battle of the 
Vimy Ridge was neither the first nor the worst 
of the battles on this sector. Some six months 



72 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

before my company reached the scene, in 
September, 1915, the French and Germans had 
met in some terrible struggles. Nothing was 
left of the villages of Neuville-St.-Vaast and La 
Targette but a heap of crumbling bricks here 
and there. The casualties were ghastly. The 
total casualties for the attacks in this region 
were estimated at about 150,000. The French 
had succeeded in capturing the German lines — 
but at a terrible cost. The trenches were so 
numerous and mazelike that the district is 
named "The Labyrinth." It was certainly a 
puzzle to get in and out. We would enter the 
communication-trenches at a point near the 
crossroads at Aux-Rietz, where our billets were 
situated on the main Arras-Souchez road, 
and walk up the communicating-trenches as 
hard as we could go for three-quarters of an 
hour before we reached the front line. The 
trenches retained the names left them by the 
French: Boyau Zivy, Boyau Bentata, etc. 
It took us several days to get our bearings here. 
It is seldom a pleasant business taking over new 
trenches. Just about the time you get hope- 
lessly lost, Fritz thinks it's the correct time to 
start a bad trench-mortar strafe, and your 



THE VIMY RIDGE TRENCHES 73 

efforts to find any sort of cover always prove 
unavailing — no dugouts or shelters are to be 
seen for miles around. 

The French officers whom we met were of 
the typical polite and considerate order, and 
very hospitable. Instead of the usual British 
"whiskey and soda," we would be invited to a 
drink of real "eau de vie," or French brandy, 
when we visited them in their shelters and dug- 
outs. Another man and I were entertained the 
second day after our arrival by the French 
engineers at luncheon at their mess at Ma- 
rouille. Seven courses were served to us, with 
suitable wines. The supply of crockery was 
limited, and we had to use our own jack-knives, 
but these trifles did not interfere with my ap- 
preciation of the best meal I had had since 
leaving California. We afterward found out 
that their cook had formerly been the head chef 
of the well-known Holborn Restaurant in Lon- 
don. 

I took in the first shift to work on our new 
mines. On our way up I met Colonel A., 
the controller of mines for the Third Army 
coming out. He gave me the disquieting in- 
formation, just received from the French, that 



74 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

I might expect Mine No. 806 to go up that 
night. "Seven o'clock is the Hun's favorite 
time for firing," was his last remark. It was 
then about six-thirty, and as we were forced 
to pass this mine in order to place our men 
near by, we thought we would hurry along. 
As a matter of fact, Fritz did not blow this 
mine until some two months later, though his 
gallery was not more than ten to fifteen feet 
away from ours all this time. We did our best 
to make the Germans lire by rigging up a 
dummy pick and operating it regularly and 
using other devices. The enemy would often 
keep us on the anxious seat with tunnels like 
this. 

When we started our operations, his tunnels 
in many places were right underneath us, and 
these he would work intermittently, firing some 
and holding others to fire later when he thought 
he could take us by surprise and do the most 
damage. It was always a great relief when he 
finally exploded these delayed mines, and 
after investigating matters we would imme- 
diately hike along to a near-by dugout and 
celebrate. This state of affairs continued for 
about three weeks, at the end of which time 



THE VIMY RIDGE TRENCHES 75 

we had pretty well figured out, by listening 
carefully everywhere, just where his tunnels 
were. 

We had been welcomed with open arms by 
the British infantry. The poor fellows were 
having a bad time, especially in the advanced 
posts. The old Fifty-first (Highland) Division 
were then holding the trenches there. Very 
few of these gallant Scotchmen, or "Jocks," 
as they are called, are alive to-day, for after 
leaving us they went into the Somme offen- 
sive, and there lost at least half their number, 
and the other half fought in later battles with 
the same percentage of casualties. But this 
is only too common. These Scotchmen were 
great fighters, and liked nothing better than 
meeting the Hun on anything like equal terms, 
and would positively revel in any attempt of 
the enemy to raid our lines. The latter would 
only occasionally try this, however, and never 
outstayed their welcome. All these Jocks 
were veterans and very handy with the uni- 
versal Mills hand-bomb. Thousands of these 
bombs were furnished, and could be found 
in haversacks placed in bomb-boxes and lo- 
cated everywhere around the front lines (see 



76 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

illustration). In the trenches these bombs 
are always carried with detonators in them, 
and the only operation necessary is to with- 
draw a cotter-pin which holds the spring-re- 
lease down. Directly the pin is taken out, the 
spring is released unless the bomb is held cor- 
rectly, that is, with your fingers around it. 
The bomb explodes five seconds after the spring 
is released, so this little precaution of holding 
down the spring-release with your fingers must 
be observed. It sometimes happens that men- 
forget to pull out these cotter-pins. One night 
one of our husky Jocks, in the excitement in- 
cident to a small raid on the enemy, forgot to 
extract the pin, though I was told he threw the 
bomb with such force, and good aim, that it 
completely split the skull of the poor Boche it 
was aimed at. 

It was a different matter, however, when it 
came to mines. They would fight anything 
they could see, but were admittedly not pleased 
with the prospect of mines going up under their 
feet every night. The poor fellows who had to 
hold the most advanced posts, mostly bombing 
sentries and Lewis gunners, did not at all relish 
the alarming regularity with which the Ger- 



THE VIMY RIDGE TRENCHES 77 

mans blew their big mines. No wonder they 
were glad to see us. The poor infantryman 
gets enough hell on the surface and from the 
air without adding troubles from below. Ask 
any troops who have held trenches where 
mining was going on. Nothing will induce 
them to go below in our mines. As one lad 
said to me once: "Blime, I'd rather go over the 
top any day — why a V. C. wouldn't tempt me 
to go down that blooming 'ole." 



CHAPTER VI 

CHALK CAVERNS AND TRENCH 
MORTARS 

BOTH the Germans and ourselves used 
I huge mine-charges in the chalk and the 
effect of the explosion of many big mines 
is spread over a large area. We always felt the 
shakes in the ground even back in our dugouts 
at Aux Rietz, over a mile away; while in the 
forward trenches we had all the excitement of a 
regular earthquake. All dugouts would shake 
badly, timbers would be loosened and many 
men buried in other dugouts and shelters, while 
sleeping. The firing of mines at night or just 
about dawn was a favorite practice. Just about 
the time you have turned in on the floor of 
your dugout to get an hour's badly needed rest, 
the earth is shaken by a heavy mine explosion. 
Pleasant dreams of your home in California's 
land of sunshine and flowers are rudely inter- 
rupted. You grab your tin hat, gas-helmet, 

78 



CHALK CAVERNS 79 

electric torch, and hurry up the steps to the 
dark, ghostly trench. Often it is raining hard 
and none of the sentries on duty in the trench 
above know exactly where the mine has gone 
up. Sloshing through the muddy trenches 
and dodging the trench-mortar and machine- 
gun fire which always form a part of the pro- 
gramme in a Boche "blow," you reach the 
scene of the explosion as fast as you can, fear- 
ing the worst, but often relieved to find that 
your boys are all right and that only minor 
damage has been done to your galleries. After 
visiting your own mines, you come up again 
to be met with a report that several bombing 
sentries have been buried in their trench as a 
result of the mine shake. Rescue-parties are 
hastily organized, and endeavors are made to 
reach them under a perfect hail of bullets, all 
working frantically to dig them out from the 
thick mud and slimy sand-bags. Sometimes 
we are successful. Many times I have heard 
the poor fellows call for help, but despite all 
our efforts, we could not always reach them 
to dig them out before they were fatally in- 
jured or completely buried. I have experi- 
enced the sensation of being buried and partly 



8o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

buried by shell explosions as well as mine ex- 
plosions at different times. The first few 
minutes before you are dug out are not 
pleasant ones. 

The opposing trenches here were very close 
in places. Where craters had been blown, 
the Boche would often occupy one rim and 
our fellows the other. Some of the smaller 
craters were only about fifteen to twenty yards 
wide. Curiously enough, the fighting at these 
points was not as fierce as might be inferred. 
It seemed to be a case of waiting for the other 
fellow to start something. 

Most of the craters, big and small, were 
more or less consolidated by building narrow, 
winding trenches out to them from the front 
lines, and then cutting trenches in the rims. 
Sentries would be posted at good observation- 
posts overlooking these craters, and it was an 
unhealthy practice to take your evening stroll 
there. In the course of my duties it has 
been my misfortune to be reconnoitring these 
craters on some occasions when bombs or 
T. M.'s have burst in them, and the sensation 
is not pleasant, although one is not so likely to 
be buried as when shells or mortars burst near 



CHALK CAVERNS 81 

in a trench. There is no cover of any kind to 
be had. Those craters near our lines would 
be very useful to us as they would serve as 
receptacles into which we could dump our spoil. 
A number of the trenches here, as elsewhere, 
ran right across No Man's Land from the Hun 
lines to ours, and these would be blocked on 
both sides in some way or other, either with 
barbed wire or breastworks of sand-bags, etc. 
Our advanced billets were within ioo yards 
of the villages of Neuville-St.-Vaast and La 
Targette. Both of these villages were levelled 
by enemy fire, nothing remaining but a mass of 
ruins. All the cellars were used by troops as 
billets. We were lucky enough to get a very 
decent old French officers' dugout by the side of 
the road, with about six to seven feet of earth 
cover. The timbers of the structure were sub- 
stantial, and lucky it was for us that they were 
for we were very heavily bombarded by the 
Hun artillery. Our men had very curious bil- 
lets. In this part of France and for some dis- 
tance south the subsoil is a hard chalk, and this 
has been quarried underground nearly every- 
where, leaving a clay top-soil and good grazing- 
land above. The houses and buildings are 



82 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

constructed of chalk building-blocks with brick 
foundations. Every house, also, no matter 
how small, has a cellar. These cellars are not 
proof against direct hits with enemy artillery, 
but they can be easily reinforced and are ex- 
ceedingly useful in any case. 

Chalk caverns are numerous, and one of the 
large variety was handed over to us as a billet 
for our men. Although our entire company 
was about 600 strong, we had plenty of room 
for 400 or 500 extra men in this cavern, and 
for a long time we took care of over a thou- 
sand there. It was in decidedly bad condition 
when it was turned over to us. The air could 
almost be cut with a knife at that time; how- 
ever, we put in another upcast and managed 
to clean it up as well. As it was over 70 feet 
deep, there was no loss of sleep from enemy- 
shelling activity. Stories were current as to 
a big fight which had occurred down in this 
cavern in the previous September, and I should 
judge that there was some truth in the report, 
on account of the large French cemetery at 
the crossroads above and the number of bodies 
which we unearthed below in the cavern. 

These caverns exist almost everywhere in 



CHALK CAVERNS 83 

Artois, Picardy, and the Somme district. 
Under nearly every church there are big caverns 
or crypts. At Foncquevillers in some large 
crypts under the church we stored millions of 
bombs and trench-mortars, and stores of am- 
munition, altogether sufficient to blot out the 
whole of the German army. An interesting 
way of salvaging and sorting the Mills hand- 
grenades in one of those crypts was practised 
here. The bombers would sit around a cir- 
cular iron tank nearly filled with water. Half- 
way up the sides of the tank clay sand-bags 
were placed. When a bomb-fuse started to 
fizz, the bombers would quickly drop it in the 
tank, where it would explode at the bottom 
and do no harm. Some of these caverns ex- 
isted also right in our support-line trenches, 
and it was common opinion that old galleries 
in the chalk ran under No Man's Land and 
across to the German lines. 

The ruins of an old mill located just behind 
our firing-line was suspected of having a cave 
under it. Upon investigation we found that 
old tunnels formerly existed there but had 
caved in. However, the enemy had so many 
tunnels all around us that it kept us jumping 



84 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

sideways to keep informed as to all of them. 
This mill was a favorite target with the Hun, 
and therefore not a popular rendezvous for us. 
Some very stout-hearted gunner officers had 
adopted it as an O. P. (observation-post), and 
had reinforced it with a strong corrugated- 
iron elephant frame. No one disputed their 
claim to it. A few days after, the whole 
business, frame and all, went up in smoke as 
the result of a direct hit with a Boche eight-inch. 
It is a custom for engineer and artillery officers 
to "spy out" the land around the trenches by 
day and night, intent on their own fell designs, 
often alone, in distinct disregard of existing 
orders, which do not allow officers to make 
their rounds in the trenches unaccompanied by 
an orderly or N. C. O. Mining officers in par- 
ticular were the worst sinners in this respect, 
and our men were often arrested and very 
nearly shot before they established their iden- 
tity. 

I met one of my own N. C. O.'s one day com- 
ing along the firing-line closely following an 
officer whom he had suspected of being a spy. 
The officer's hands were held high above his 
head, while B., usually a quite mild, inoffensive 



CHALK CAVERNS 85 

sort of chap, was threatening him fiercely with 
a jab from his bayonet if he opened his mouth 
or made any strange move. The situation was 
highly amusing. The young officer was pro- 
testing strongly against such treatment. It 
appeared that my man had caught him below 
in one of our mines asking foolish questions. 
We took him along to the nearest company 
headquarters' dugout and let him go after he 
had satisfied us that he was all right. I'm 
willing to bet that he didn't attempt any more 
mine explorations without proper credentials. 

My only experience with a real spy was in 
these trenches. One day I met a very pleasant- 
spoken artillery officer, had a few words with 
him as he passed my dugout, and offered him a 
drink, which he refused politely. It may have 
been fortunate for me that I was called away 
hurriedly to attend to some work. Later in 
the day I heard that my acquaintance of the 
morning had turned out to be a German spy, 
and, I understand, was lined up against a wall 
a few days later. He had what I thought was 
one of the most natural British accents I have 
ever heard. 

In taking over the troublesome galleries be- 



86 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

low ground from the French, they had neg- 
lected to provide us with any surveys of the 
mine system, so it was necessary for us to make 
some. Our usual method was to use a com- 
pass and a fifty-foot tape and make surveys 
between all mine-shafts and then carry them 
below. The work below was all right, but in 
the trenches above the necessity of keeping one 
eye on the compass and the other constantly on 
the lookout for trench-mortars was rather dis- 
concerting, and many readings and measure- 
ments had to be repeated. It was a case of 
"let George do it" when surveys of any close- 
up trenches had to be made, and the newest 
joined officer usually found it included in 
addition to his other duties. 

The charges we used in our deep mines in 
the chalk were tremendous, mine-chambers be- 
ing loaded with anything from I up to 50 tons of 
a high explosive twice as strong as dynamite. 
Last year in the battle of Messines the British 
launched their first big attack by firing a large 
number of mines below the enemy trenches, 
using charges of from 1 5 to 50 tons in each mine 
and exploding them all at the same moment, 
the "zero" minute, or exact time at which the 



CHALK CAVERNS 87 

infantry go over the top. Very close to a mil- 
lion pounds of a remarkably high explosive 
were fired at the same instant by the engineers 
on this front. In starting an infantry attack 
the mining officers, in common with all the 
officers of the units engaged in the attack, syn- 
chronize their watches, and at the second 
planned, push home hard the handles of their 
blasting-machines. Earth-racking mines are 
detonated with terrific force. The craters 
formed from these explosions are often over 300 
feet in diameter and from 50 to 150 feet deep. 
Whole companies of men are engulfed, all 
trenches within a large radius totally destroyed, 
and many additional men buried in their fall. 

So intense was the fighting below ground in 
our operations on the Vimy Ridge that we 
would explode sometimes as many as 4 separate 
mines a night on our own small company front, 
only 500 yards in length of sector. In one of 
our clay galleries we reached the enemy 
trenches and, passing under them, ran into the 
timber of one of their mining-shafts. Care- 
fully cutting a small hole through one of their 
timbers we listened there, relieving each other 
from time to time for nearly twenty-four hours. 



88 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

We would carefully crawl up to our listening- 
hole and sit tight in the dark, hardly daring to 
breathe. We had struck the bottom of the 
Boche shaft and could hear them talking and 
even see occasionally the enemy miners as 
they passed up to their own trenches. Our 
knowledge of German was unfortunately ex- 
tremely limited, but no interpreters could be 
obtained or persuaded to join us at this spot. 
I can't blame them. We finally fired this 
mine and three others also under their front 
line at the same time, blowing their trenches 
and many Huns sky-high. A small party from 
the "Black Watch" followed over on a fast raid 
and reported on their return that very little 
trace of enemy trenches could be found for 
200 yards, everything having been totally de- 
stroyed by our mines. 

Another time we were tunnelling through 
with a four-foot-six-inch by two-foot-six-inch 
gallery in the clay, but right on top of the chalk 
formation. The floor of the gallery was only 
an inch or two above the chalk. The enemy 
workings must have been about ten feet be- 
low our gallery and in the chalk. We could 
hear them very plainly at work, so continued 



CHALK CAVERNS 89 

progress on our tunnel without a sound, and 
presently, as they came very close, could hear 
them talking. We then loaded a small charge, 
about a thousand pounds of high explosive, at 
the end of our gallery. Sitting tight and lis- 
tening carefully, we waited until they had 
passed under and just beyond us. A few hours 
later the listeners reporting that they were at 
work again on the face of their gallery, we fired 
our camouflet with the blasting-machine from 
the trench above. 

A camouflet is a small mine explosion which 
does not form a crater, and is calculated to 
destroy underground workings. One does not 
always have pleasant reflections after some of 
these operations, but we all stand the same 
chance. If the enemy fires first, we go up, 
and vice versa. So the game of wits below 
ground goes on. Sometimes we score, and 
sometimes Fritz outplays us. 

One night a runner brought down the news 
to us at our dugout at Aux-Rietz that the 
Boches had fired a camouflet in our "H" mine 
on the extreme right of our sector. Everybody 
below had been killed from the resulting con- 
cussion and poisonous gases developed. For- 



9 o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

tunately there were only seven sappers in the 
mine at the time. The officer on duty and three 
other men had gallantly attempted to rescue 
some of the poor fellows by going below in 
oxygen-breathing apparatus, but had them- 
selves been gassed, and were only rescued with 
difficulty. After the gas below had dissipated 
sufficiently we were able to recover three of 
the bodies, but those of the other four men 
were never found. A Church of England 
chaplain came up a day or two later and read 
the usual short army burial service at the 
top of the mine-shaft, surrounded by a few of 
the comrades of the dead soldiers, the latter 
reverently attentive and much imoressed with 
this unusual burial. 

The enemy trench-mortar fire on the surface 
was particularly bad. We reached a stage 
where we thought nothing of shelling as long 
as they did not throw in a number of T. M.'s, 
as they are called. These trench-mortars 
vary in weight from 5 to 250 pounds, from 
aerial darts to heavy minenwerfers. Their 
trajectory being steep and their velocity not 
very high, we could see them turning over and 
over like a football in the air, look out for them, 



CHALK CAVERNS 91 

and in many cases reach cover before they 
dropped. However, this was not easy. One 
could always see the trench-mortar which was 
going to land in a trench about a hundred 
or more yards distant, but those T. M.'s 
which were coming straight for you kept us 
guessing as to whether they would land in 
our fire-bay or the next. We usually guessed 
wrong. 

Our casualties from these trench-mortars 
were heavy. Ten of my men were coming in 
to report for duty one afternoon. They were 
working at mine "F," and the trenches by 
which we approached this shaft were always 
subjected to intense bombardment with T. M.'s, 
and at many places almost completely levelled 
by this fire at regular intervals. When this 
happened the wise man would bend almost 
double in passing along or crawl over the ob- 
struction on his hands and stomach so as to 
avoid observation. On this afternoon we con- 
cluded that some of our lads had exposed 
themselves in going up, or that the Boches had 
located the entrance to our shaft. Directly 
they reached the entrance a heavy trench- 
mortar burst among them, killing six and 



92 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

wounding another. Four of the bodies were 
hurled down the shaft. 

These T. M.'s are bad things — the burst 
results in inflicting multiple wounds. I have 
seen a number of poor fellows hit in over 
twenty places from one T. M. The medical 
people have a busy time fixing them up. 
Many, however, recover. 

Another time in coming up a communica- 
tion-trench we found the body of one of our 
boys lying in the bottom of the trench, evi- 
dently hit only a few minutes before. The poor 
chap was dead, but curiously enough we could 
only find one wound — that in his shoulder. He 
must have been killed by the shock of the 
explosion. The T. M. had burst about five 
feet from him. In my experience this has 
seldom happened, but I understand there are 
many authenticated cases. 

As in the infantry, the majority of our casual- 
ties occurred from day to day, from one to 
two or three and more almost daily. At any 
rate it does not take long in every-day trench 
warfare to lose half of any company. 

At other times, when, for instance, troops 
are relieving other units in the trenches, or 



CHALK CAVERNS 93 

perhaps in large parties at crossroads coming 
up, the casualties from shelling are very large. 
One night in Flanders a party of our men were 
going up the communication-trench when a 
Boche five-point nine (5.9) burst on the parapet 
near them. Of this small party of thirty, 
only fifteen went on to the front line, seven 
being killed and eight wounded. At the cross- 
roads entering Hebuterne from Sailly, a par- 
ticularly hot place, and one that I know very 
well, having been billeted in a cellar within a 
hundred yards from it during two winter 
months I have known as many as seventy 
casualties from one shell-bursting. Every day 
one either sees or hears of large or small 
parties being blotted out by enemy shelling. 

The division we were with provided us with 
working-parties day and night to assist us. 
Usually the parties came from the infantry, 
though the cavalry were also used a good deal. 
Here we received parties from the cavalry, in- 
fantry, and cyclists. As I understand it, the 
cyclists are intended to support and relieve the 
cavalry at night on the few occasions when they 
can be used in open warfare. I don't think 
they had the chance very often. So far the 



94 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

cavalry have been out of luck in this war. 
Both the cavalry and cyclists have been doing 
trench duty now for a long time. 

On the Vimy Ridge a number of East Indian 
cavalry units were given us for working- 
parties. These were mostly regiments of 
lancers, and were composed of Sikhs, Rajputs, 
Pathans, and many other tribes or sects of 
British Eastern India. The Sikhs were par- 
ticularly fine men, tall, well built, quiet, and 
exceedingly dignified. They always wore their 
big white turbans. It is a mark of caste with 
them, and nothing will induce them to part 
with these or wear anything else. They even 
scorned the use of the steel helmets which had 
just been issued to us. We did not. Many 
of us, myself included, owe our lives to the 
use of these steel helmets. The other Indian 
troops always wore the steel helmet. 

These native troops had what was to us a 
very unpleasant habit of carrying everything 
on their heads. We did not object to this 
procedure back of the line, but when they car- 
ried all the mine timbers and other supplies 
right to the fire-trenches in this manner we 
thought it wise to stop the practice before the 



CHALK CAVERNS 95 

Huns blotted us all out. Fritz would observe 
these little parties very easily by reason of the 
fact that the timber would invariably show 
above the top of the trench as they came up 
and would make us the target for a little more 
T. M. practice. I used to cut ahead across 
the top and jump down into a trench they would 
have to pass, and there make every man take 
his piece of timber from the top of his head 
and tuck it under his arm. These fellows did 
not like the T. M.'s any more than our boys 
did, but after a time treated them in the same 
casual, cheerful way as the others. I heard an 
infantryman once refer to these native troops, 
in the hearing of one of their British officers, 
in rather a disrespectful way. The way that 
officer lectured the offender was good evidence 
of the friendly relations existing between the 
British officers and their native troops. The 
latter, in turn, think a great deal of their British 
officers, and look after them with an almost 
fatherly solicitude. They had their own native 
officers also, many of them being sons of rajahs 
or native princes of India, educated for the 
most part in the big English public schools and 
colleges. The cavalry "brasshats" (as the 



96 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

British call all senior officers) of these units 
visited them often in the trenches. They were 
all in the trenches for the first time, and much 
interested in everything. So many of them 
called at our dugouts, and in company with 
us inspected our work and the trenches gen- 
erally, that we felt like regular Cook's tourist 
guides. They were all mighty fine fellows and 
without exception aching to get a chance at 
the Hun, and chafing a great deal at their 
forced inactivity. They had hopes then of 
getting in a real charge in the possible open 
fighting of the coming Somme offensive. 



CHAPTER VII 

AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE 

^LL this time the fighting around us 
/-% was fiercely waged. The Vimy Ridge 
was even then noted as being one of 
the "hottest" parts of the line, and the min- 
ing activity all along these sectors, especially 
where the trenches were very close together, 
was much in evidence. 

The tunnelling company who were on our 
immediate left had a very arduous time. One 
night they lost every single man then on duty 
in the front lines, all being captured. This 
happened at a time when the Boche raided 
their trenches in force and caught them below 
ground. Whenever the Germans made a raid 
in any large numbers it went hard with our 
fellows, because the number of infantry holding 
the advance posts were reduced to a minimum. 
However, our boys knew pretty well how to 
take care of themselves, and to put up as good 
a fight as the infantry. Well they might, since 

97 



98 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

they had been recruited from the infantry to 
organize our tunnelling companies. Nearly 
fifty of our men had been in active service since 
Mons in 1914, and most of the others had been 
"over the top" on numerous occasions with 
their old infantry battalions. In addition 
many were old regular soldiers of long service 
in India and elsewhere. Nearly all of them had 
been wounded several times and looked with 
more or less scorn on the fellows who at the 
front wore the gold stripe for wounds. They 
were a tough crowd, no doubt, but certainly 
some of the finest fellows under the sun, and 
they would follow their officers through hell 
itself. Back in our rest-billets we had our 
troubles with them, but never anything serious. 
As long as I live I'll take ofF my hat to those 
lads of the 181st R. E. 

Our advanced billet at Aux-Rietz was not 
exactly a health resort. Our own artillery was 
scattered all around, and we came in for a lot 
of enemy fire directed evidently at counter- 
battery positions. Our men in the large cavern 
were all right as long as they stayed below, but 
you can't keep men below all the time, so we 
had our share of hits. In our officers' dugout 



AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE 99 

we were fairly safe, too; that is, it was proof 
against everything but direct hits with heavy 
shells. Though they plastered the ground all 
round us, fortunately none landed directly on 
it — much to our satisfaction. Fritz bombarded 
us often with lachrymatory shells, the tear- 
inducing variety, and this was most unpleas- 
ant, but nothing more. Later we had our 
share of gas-shells containing hydrocyanic acid 
and other gases. 

Opposite our cavern at the crossroads was 
the ruin of an old estaminet which had been 
used for storing an immense quantity of French 
bombs, and the latter had never been removed. 
As this crossroad was a favorite target for the 
Hun we would often speculate on the size of 
the crater it would make when hit. 

In the spring of 1916 we received the glad 
news of the Russians having captured 100,000 
of the enemy on the eastern front. Hope 
springs eternal, etc. — many of us thought that 
six months would finish things up, and were 
willing to bet on it. 

A new division came up about this time to 
relieve our old friends of the Highland Division. 
It was the Sixtieth (London) Division, just ar- 



ioo FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

rived from England after a year's training 
there. Very interesting it was to us to com- 
pare this division with the last. They certainly 
made good. By this time, also, I fear that 
most of these lads have joined the others who 
are resting below the pitiful little wooden 
crosses so common in France. 

At that time they exhibited all the common 
characteristics of new troops going into the 
trenches for the first time. Naturally enough 
they were jumpy at first, and well inclined to 
follow their first instructions of feeling out the 
enemy and not starting anything unless friend 
Heiny got busy first. This quiet state of af- 
fairs, however, did not really please them, 
and nobody was much surprised or grieved 
when their colonel, from the depths of a dug- 
out in the support line, telephoned in evident 
exasperation to the various company officers: 
"For God's sake, let's get on with the war." 

As we knew the trenches well, they would 
come to us often for advice and information. 
With regard to mining alarms, our orders were 
not to alarm the infantry or withdraw them 
from dangerous posts until absolutely neces- 
sary. Many questions were asked us as to the 



AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE 101 

state of affairs below ground, but we were 
guarded in our replies. A couple of weeks 
later three of their Lewis gunners, occupying a 
rather isolated advanced post, were captured 
by a small enemy raiding-party. This natu- 
rally made them angry and they strafed the 
Hun fairly consistently for some time after- 
ward. As time went on and they became 
more confident, they staged a number of very 
successful little raids, seldom returning without 
a prisoner. 

Our first dugout was in a communication- 
trench called the Boyau Bentata, and about 
twenty yards from the junction of this trench 
with the firing-trench, here called the Double- 
mont Trench. This junction was evidently 
well known to the enemy, who pounded the 
spot regularly with T. M.'s. It is unfortunately 
necessary to keep sentries at points like this, 
and we took a certain morbid interest in noting 
the casualties at this place. They were many. 
I had to pass it a dozen times, at least, during 
the twenty-four hours, but always happened 
to be in a hurry. There are many undesirable 
places like this in the trenches. Warning and 
information as to their location is always a 



102 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

part of the programme when "trench reliefs" 
are carried out. 

Some daring work is done at night by the 
various patrols in No Man's Land. No one 
without experience can understand how easy 
it is to lose oneself on these excursions. It is 
absolutely imperative to take one's bearings 
very carefully before moving far in No Man's 
Land. Many men wander into enemy trenches. 
Time and time again we have captured Germans 
who had become hopelessly lost at night, and 
who surrendered themselves in our trenches 
after having spent two or three very unpleasant 
days in shell-holes in No Man's Land. Our 
men, too, would occasionally disappear in the 
same mysterious way. 

To a man in No Man's Land at night the 
enemy trenches and our own look very much 
alike. Star-shells are going up on both sides, 
and often there seems to be nothing to indicate 
which is which. As summer came on, the grass 
in No Man's Land grew very long, and some 
very daring scouting took place in the day- 
time, as well as at night. One man in the new 
division, an Argentine cattle-puncher, would 
tie a lot of long grass and brush around his 



AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE 103 

body and then slowly crawl around in the day- 
time, crossing to the enemy trenches frequently. 
He would pack his bully and biscuits with him, 
carry a water-bottle, and be away sometimes 
for forty-eight hours at a time. He did some 
very good work and brought back useful in- 
formation as to Hun machine-gun posts and 
other things, and by infinite care lived for two 
weeks in this way before he got a bullet through 
his lungs. 

A battalion of the London Scottish were in 
this division, not all regular Scotchmen, but of 
Scotch descent. I recall very distinctly the 
first time I got a working-party of these fellows. 
They had to work on top of the trenches at 
night, bucking the sand-bags from our mines, 
emptying them into shell-holes, mine-craters, 
etc. I could not help but sympathize with 
them in the trenches at night for the first time, 
clad in their short kilts and slipping around in 
the mud and hard rain on the wet and slimy 
sand-bags, meantime dodging the machine- 
gun fire of the enemy. I think they have about 
nine yards of material in these kilts, and they 
seem to like wearing them, but I can't say I 
envied them. 



io 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

As up in the Flanders trenches, we would 
often go to the infantry officers' dugouts to 
meals, especially if anything better than the 
usual army rations was to be had, and we were 
often invited to join the Jock officers at dinner 
in their company headquarters dugout. They 
had a strange habit of asking their pipers down 
to play for them at dinner, just as they do 
back at their camps. You can imagine how 
the bagpipes, played by a full-lunged Scot, 
would sound in a dugout thirty feet under- 
ground and about six by eight feet in size 
with five or six big Scotchmen filling the place. 
The piper was invariably rewarded with a tot 
of whiskey after his effort. 

The arrival of mail was always eagerly antici- 
pated, and we were seldom disappointed. The 
British Postal Service, which is under the direc- 
tion of the Royal Engineers, was particularly 
efficient. In all the time I was at the front, 
our mail was seldom delayed. We received 
the London newspapers the day after issue, 
and the Continental Daily Mail the day of 
issue. My own mail from way off in Cali- 
fornia was received regularly almost every 
day, reaching me nearly always three weeks 



AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE 105 

after mailing. My friends in California sent 
me a plum-pudding, candy, and other perish- 
able stuff for the Christmas of 1916, and it 
arrived on time and in good condition. The 
number of parcels alone handled must have 
been enormous, many officers and men getting 
their supplies of tobacco, papers, magazines, 
and other good things regularly through the 
mail. It has reached such a point that I 
understand many officers now send their laun- 
dry back to England each week-end. 

When our turn came around for a rest we 
would ride back to our camp at Berles. Here 
we used to have some mighty good times. A 
third of the officers would usually be out there, 
the H. Q. officers always, and there was not 
too much work to do. We would arrange foot- 
ball games for the men, get up matches with 
other units at rest; play cricket, fix up box- 
ing tournaments, track events, and occasion- 
ally visit some of the villages near by. Here 
at B. we were clear away from any shelling, 
and got a thorough change. Only occasion- 
ally were we even visited by a bombing enemy 
plane. The summers are very pleasant in 
France, and we could sleep out-of-doors. 



106 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

Usually our back camps were much closer up, 
about three miles on an average, and we would 
be shelled occasionally, but there is nothing 
much to worry about in camps at this distance 
except at these odd times. The best billets 
are usually the fine old chateaux, nearly every 
village boasting one of these, but the corps and 
division staffs would usually secure them first. 

Back in the rest-billets it was amusing to 
hear the average man's philosophy on war 
in general. We all agreed that in the next 
war, perhaps a decade or so in the future, we 
would all lean back in our comfortable Morris 
chairs at the club and patronisingly remark 
to any young fellow around who was planning 
to enlist, "Go to it, old man, you're sure a 
lucky man — only wish I was twenty years 
younger — I'd be with you," then leisurely 
pause to light a fresh cigar, order another drink, 
and continue to read with much inward satis- 
faction the newspaper man's optimistic ac- 
count of the latest victories. 

An amusing incident happened one night 
with a new mining officer who at the time was 
occupying one of our dugouts just behind the 
firing-line. It was at a time when the German 



AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE 107 

miners were tunnelling all around us and we 
stood in doubt as to where some of their tun- 
nels extended. One night he sent an S O S call 
that the Huns could be heard talking to the 
right of our dugout, estimating the distance at 
about ten feet. Our O. C, a game little chap, 
happened to be at the Savoy, our dugout at 
Aux-Rietz. Receiving this message about 2 
in the morning, he hurried up to the scene and, 
after a very short investigation, discovered 
that the sounds of enemy mining were the re- 
sult of one of our own infantry working-parties 
opening up a new trench just at the back of 
this dugout. When satisfied that it was not 
a practical joke and that the officer had been 
genuinely concerned, he dropped the matter 
and did not proceed with the court-martial 
which the rest of us feared would ensue. 

Our O. C, Major C, a former regular officer 
in the British army, was always on hand when 
any interesting events were happening, and 
would turn out at any moment, day or night, 
to go up to the trenches and assist his officers. 
In other words, he was a "Regular Fellow," 
and very popular with his command. 

Plenty of fighting in the air was going on all 



108 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

along the front, often two or three fights tak- 
ing place at the same time. Much interest is 
taken in them, and we would watch to see them 
come down. When flying too low they would 
sometimes be hit by the "archies," or anti- 
aircraft guns. Sometimes their gasolene-tanks 
would be hit, and they would then burst into 
flames, turn over, and fall apparently helplessly 
for some distance, but in the majority of cases 
would even then make a safe landing. Other 
times the enemy planes would come low enough 
to let us get a shot at them with our rifles and 
Lewis guns, and we would blaze away, but sel- 
dom recorded a hit. All aviators, however, 
agree that they are not much disturbed by the 
archies, but strongly dislike machine-gun fire. 
Before we left this sector we were inspected 
by no less a person than the Third Army com- 
mander. He shook hands very affably with all 
of our officers and expressed himself as highly 
delighted with our success in discouraging the 
Hun below ground. (By this time the enemy 
were only firing an average of about one mine 
a week under our sector of the trenches.) The 
commander was a very fine officer, but his 
speeches came with difficulty. At each of the 



AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE 109 

frequent pauses in his address to the company 
he would turn around and grasp warmly the 
hand of any officer alongside him. This seemed 
to encourage him, and he would continue. 

About the middle of July we were ordered 
down to the line opposite Fonquevilliers and 
Hebuterne. We gave up our comfortable 
quarters at B. with regret. Our work in the 
new trenches was to construct a number of 
galleries under No Man's Land, to be used in 
a coming offensive for ammunition-carriers 
and returned casualties. The infantry in these 
trenches opposite the famous Gommecourt 
Wood had been most unfortunate with the 
start of the Somme offensive on July 1. It 
was the most northerly end of the Big Push, 
the assault having taken place along the 
trenches all the way from Gommecourt Wotod 
opposite here as far as Peronne on the British 
front, the French carrying on to the south of 
this. 

According to our information, one of the 
battalions of this division had gone over the 
top on July 1, and reached Gommecourt Wood, 
an almost impregnable position, but through 
some mistake had not received sufficient sup- 



no FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

port from the division on their left, and had 
been obliged to withdraw, losing over fifty per 
cent of their number while doing so. Two other 
battalions went over near this sector at the 
same time and were never heard of again. The 
trees, or stumps of trees, in Gommecourt Wood 
were laced together so thickly with barbed 
wire that further bombardment from our ar- 
tillery only seemed to make it a more impene- 
trable barrier than before. 

Our forward billet was in Foncquevillers. It 
was badly shelled, but not as bad as our former 
quarters. It's all a matter of comparison. 
The pup-pup-pup of machine-gun fire at night 
echoing through the trees of this village sounded 
worse than it really was, but we nevertheless 
were forced to make a practice of hugging the 
walls pretty closely and keeping behind the 
street sand-bag breastworks which afforded 
some protection as we walked around. It was 
a common sight in walking down the streets of 
this village by day to see roofs falling in or 
walls crashing across the road when the build- 
ing was hit by a shell. Our steel helmets were 
pretty useful again in preventing the falling 
tile from drilling holes in our heads. Every 



AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE in 

roof was broken and tiles fell like leaves. An 
infallible index of the extent of enemy shelling 
on the villages close up was to count the num- 
ber of civilians still living there. The majority 
of them very close up were totally abandoned 
by their former residents, while a number of 
other villages, which came in for more or less 
intermittent fire, still claimed small numbers 
of their original population, nearly all women, 
and mighty plucky ones at that. 

In F., as in all villages close up, notices in- 
structed you to "walk on the left side of the 
road" and in other places to use the trenches 
everywhere intersecting the village. 

Whenever the "heavies" wished to shell the 
enemy front line the infantry were ordered to 
withdraw from the front-line trenches. This 
is very necessary, particularly when the oppos- 
ing trenches are close together. In the ordinary 
course of events many men are hit by fragments 
from our own shells. We used to derive con- 
siderable pleasure in watching this close up 
strafing from the support-line. 

In the Vimy Ridge trenches whenever we 
had spotted what we suspected to be an enemy 



ii2 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

mining-shaft we would take counsel with the 
trench-mortar officer or gunners and have the 
location consistently pounded, meanwhile 
watching with delight many hits which re- 
sulted in throwing up blocks of timber, the 
latter usually denoting a direct hit. 

On account of the difficulty of obtaining 
the right atmospheric conditions for a gas at- 
tack, we would often have a number of false 
gas alarms. The "gas merchants," as they 
are called by the British, would place their 
steel cylinders in the parapet front line and 
carefully conceal them with sand-bags until 
the proper wind and velocity were obtained. 
It was usual to withdraw every one from the 
front line with the exception of the Lewis gun- 
ners. The "gas merchants" had planned to 
put over a gas attack in the trenches opposite 
Gommecourt Wood and we had taken our 
men out several times when it had been found 
inadvisable to throw the gas over on account 
of the shift of wind or some other reason. On 
this occasion I had withdrawn my men from 
the front line, and an hour later, having learned 
that the gas attack was not to come off this 
time, had gone up to the front line again alone 



AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE 113 

by a different communication-trench. In pass- 
ing along the fire-trench I happened to ask 
a corporal of a gas crew whether the gas at- 
tack was called off for that night. One of their 
sergeants overheard my questioning the cor- 
poral, and, seeing a strange officer alone in 
the trenches, very properly followed me up for 
a distance. When I arrived at the scene of our 
work I found that my men had not returned. 
The sergeant's suspicions naturally grew, and 
as I started out again he informed me that I 
would be placed under arrest until I could 
identify myself. I told him we would walk 
around to the infantry commander's dugout 
and he would vouch for me. As it happened, I 
had met some of these infantry officers in the 
morning, but they had only come in that day 
and did not know us very well. On reporting 
to the company headquarters, the infantry 
captain informed me that he guessed it was all 
right, but that he was taking no chances. I 
had better accompany the sergeant back to 
battalion headquarters. These headquarters 
were at the entrance to F., the village behind, 
and as I was marched back, with the sergeant 
closely following, I picked up one of my Irish 



ii 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

corporals at their billet in the village. The 
latter seemed highly amused at my arrest. 
On arriving at battalion headquarters I estab- 
lished my identity very quickly to the battalion 
adjutant, but made a mental decision I would 
be careful about going around the front lines 
alone in the future. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE SOMME SHOW 

TWO sections of our company left Soastre 
the next day and proceeded to Albert. 
In going down we ran into a very severe 
thunder-storm. The roads were filled with a 
heavy traffic, troops marching into Albert and 
to neighboring towns, all going into the Big 
Push. Immense quantities of supplies and 
ammunition were being sent down. Shells and 
ammunition were piled everywhere on rough 
wooden platforms by the side of the road. 
Most of the troops were bivouacked near the 
roads, and on this day were having a very 
rough time, especially where they were camped 
in the valleys. Many of them were up to their 
knees in water and their small bivouac or 
"pup" tents nearly submerged. The whole of 
the countryside around Albert was dotted with 
camps. Inside of a few hours of this rain the 
camps were simply quagmires. Roads were 
cut up badly as a result of the heavy traffic, 



n6 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

and our progress was slow. For several miles 
before reaching Albert we could see the figure 
of the "Madonna Holding the Child" out- 
stretched against the sky-line. This bronze 
statue is a notable landmark and could be 
discerned for miles around. It was situated 
on the top of the Albert church, and the church 
and tower had been shelled so badly that the 
figure had by this time almost reached a hori- 
zontal position. It was common belief among 
the French that as soon as the figure fell to 
the ground the war would be ended. 

We found that our billet at Albert was to 
be in a corner house facing a crossroads from 
which four roads radiated. Albert was being 
badly shelled at the time, and our billet had met 
the same fate as many others. No windows 
were left in the house and very little plaster 
on the walls or ceilings. However, we were 
well used to billets of this description and 
promptly proceeded to make ourselves as com- 
fortable as circumstances would allow. 

The next day we started on our work in the 
trenches and in the evening I took in my party. 
We drove up in our trucks as far as the hill 
overlooking Ovilliers-la-Boisselle, and then 



THE SOMME SHOW 117 

walked the remainder of the way into the 
trenches which we had to consolidate. We 
had said good-by to underground mining for a 
while. Here our work consisted in consolidat- 
ing the trenches as they were captured by the 
infantry. I think this night, incidentally my 
birthday, was the worst night that I have ever 
spent in the trenches. We had to march in 
single file, my party of seventy men, separated 
into small groups, along a road which at that 
time was being terribly shelled by the Huns. 
We were obliged to keep to the road on account 
of the fact that all the trenches captured since 
the 1st of July by our infantry had previously 
been flattened out by our own and the German 
artillery-fire, and only small depressions showed 
their original location. We marched for the 
last mile in pitch-darkness in mud up to our 
knees and passed through several barrages of 
enemy fire. The bombardment on both sides 
was terrific. The British guns were so numer- 
ous that in this La Boisselle valley they stood 
almost limber to limber. I had some four 
guides with me. These men had been up in 
the daytime and were to take our four parties 
to our new work here. Three of them lost 



n8 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

themselves hopelessly in the dark, but fortu- 
nately one lad managed to find one of our dug- 
out positions. The surface of the ground 
everywhere around was so pitted with shell- 
holes that it was impossible to find a piece of 
ground five feet square which did not have one 
or more shell-holes in it. The bodies of Ger- 
man and British soldiers were lying around us in 
thousands. The fitful glare from the star-lights 
and flashes from the guns showed these bodies 
and portions of bodies lying in every conceiv- 
able pitiful and grotesque position. Most of 
them were lying face down in the shell-holes and 
almost filled trenches, while others stretched 
on their backs stared up to the skies with 
glassy, unseeing eyes. Rifles, bombs, and all 
manner of small weapons and equipment, Ger- 
man and British, were scattered around on all 
hands. We had all seen plenty of the horrors 
of war before and were just fresh from the Vimy 
Ridge trenches, where bodies also were numer- 
ous, but here it was a veritable shambles. 
These men had all been killed within the last 
two or three days. Freeman, the reliable 
guide with me, warned us about stepping on 
the bodies in the dark. To my disgust, I 



THE SOMME SHOW 119 

stepped on a body right away, and in climbing 
over an earth mound, placed my hand on an- 
other. I thought I was pretty well inured to 
these horrible sights, but my revulsion was so 
strong that I vomited on the spot. Our men 
here were working in six-hour shifts. I re- 
mained in charge for two shifts, some twelve 
hours, and I can say truthfully that I was never 
more happy in my life than when I was relieved 
in the morning. It certainly was not a pleasant 
way of celebrating one's birthday. We wanted 
to bury some of the poor British lads whose 
bodies we found there, but this was impossible. 
We did bury a few bodies the next night after 
taking their identity tags and effects from their 
pockets. It is impossible for me to even half 
describe the scenes in these terrible battles 
known as the first Somme offensive. 

We started work at once on some five dug- 
outs. The entrances to three of them were 
destroyed the first night, some of our fellows 
being caught in them and buried at the time. 
Fortunately, we were able to shovel them out 
not much the worse for wear. A working-party 
of cavalry were assisting us here, and I shared 
my breakfast of hard-tack biscuit and cheese 



120 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

with the officer in charge. This officer, it ap- 
pears, was the son of a very wealthy tobacco 
manufacturer in England and, as his brother 
officers afterward informed me, the heir to 
$65,000,000. No wildcat insurance company 
even would have insured his life for thirty cents 
during this time. 

Our work was near Mouquet Farm and to the 
left of Pozieres. A mile to our north was the 
famous Thiepval. The Australians were fight- 
ing all around here when we arrived, but about 
a week later were relieved by the Canadians. 
We had some two weeks of this work, going 
up for eight hours out of every twenty-four. 
At our back billet at Albert we did not get 
much rest. The Huns were shelling the town 
regularly with heavy shells as they retreated, 
and sleep was almost impossible by reason of 
the continual rumbling of traffic on the granite 
pave road alongside our billet. It seemed to 
us that the whole British army must have driven 
past that house. There was no rest day or 
night on account of this noise. As my brother 
was with the Canadians, I looked forward 
eagerly to their arrival. However, this did 
not mean that I was likely to see him 5 as things 



THE SOMME SHOW 121 

happen at the front, your lifelong friend or 
your brother may be in the next sector to you 
and yet you will never know the fact or, even 
if you do, you would probably never get the 
chance to see him. 

At Albert we were some twenty-eight kilo- 
metres from the beautiful city of Amiens. 
All troops, officers included, have a weakness 
for this city, and whenever it was possible to 
get a few hours away from the line, they would 
try and reach it somehow, on horseback, by 
truck, or any means of conveyance. We were 
fortunate in having motorcycles, and, when 
time permitted, would ride down from Albert 
to Corbie, get on the tow-path of the river 
Somme there, and ride into Amiens. The 
horrors of war were soon forgotten, and we 
would get a good meal at the Cafe Godabert 
or at some other place, and soon feel at peace 
with the world. An American bar we patron- 
ized would furnish us with champagne cock- 
tails and other so-called American drinks, and, 
if time allowed, we would see a cinema. 

In riding back along the tow-path, we would 
see the Red Cross barges, full of badly wounded 
men, being slowly towed down. Numerous 



122 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

French and British troops were camped by the 
river. In summer it was very pleasant there 
for the troops at rest. This is the country 
where several of our own divisions are now 
fighting, brigaded with the British and French 
troops. We were riding back on motorcycles 
from Amiens one day along the tow-path when 
Captain B. rode right into the river and stuck 
in about four feet of mud and water. It was 
amusing to watch his struggles from the bank, 
but when he insisted on our helping him out 
with his machine, not quite so funny. We put 
it on the rack and in a few minutes had it going 
again. They furnished us motorcycles that 
would stand anything. We had many thrilling 
rides on these up to the trenches, being shelled 
consistently. I was lucky enough to get my 
leave whilst here — seven days in England. I 
never enjoyed a leave more. The officer who 
relieved me was wounded in the leg the same 
night, and now, though still crippled, has re- 
joined my old company in the trenches. With- 
in twenty-four hours of leaving these terrible 
scenes of wholesale slaughter I found myself 
in a theatre in London. Naturally enough, 
life seemed to be going on much as usual, and 



THE SOMME SHOW 123 

I proceeded, as every one else does, to have 
the very best time possible in the short and 
infrequent leaves. Not many hours were 
wasted on sleep during our furloughs from 
the front. We figured we had plenty of time 
to catch up on sleep when we got back to the 
front, but the luxury of being able to take off 
all your clothes, have a real bath, and then 
sleep between linen sheets again is never really 
appreciated until you've lived for months in 
a dirty, muddy trench. 

One of my brother officers was an Irishman 
who lived in Dublin, where he invariably spent 
his short furloughs. He went back once when 
the Sinn Feiners were busy with their revolu- 
tion in Ireland. On his return he complained 
that it was more exciting dodging the machine- 
gun and rifle fire around the streets of Dublin 
than it was in the front line, but, being a cheery 
soul, he appeared to have enjoyed to the utmost 
their little private war in Ireland. 

On my way back to France I was held up for 
three days at Folkestone on account of loose 
mines in the channel, thick fog, and enemy sub- 
marines. Stopping over at Boulogne in waiting 
for the Third Army train to go up to the line 



i2 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

again, I went to the movies at the Kursaal. 
Curiously enough I saw a film there entitled 
"LTnvasion des Etats-Unis." I had seen this 
picture in New York on my way over in October, 
191 5. The French audience greeted it with 
much enthusiasm and plainly showed their 
warm feelings toward our country. 

I met H., a brother officer at Boulogne. 
While travelling together to Amiens we dis- 
covered the fact that we had less than forty 
francs left between us. Economy is not a 
strong point with men on furlough from the 
trenches, and I know that most of us managed 
to spend all of our pay and usually overdraw 
a month in advance by the last day. H. and 
I figured that we could get by, but dropping 
into the Cafe Godabert in Amiens in a lordly 
way to luncheon we found to our dismay that 
our bill was over thirty francs exclusive of 
wine, which we had carefully refrained from 
ordering. With our bad French we had or- 
dered "a la carte" instead of the regular meal, 
and we were obliged to content ourselves with 
a small packet of malted milk until breakfast 
the next morning. That luncheon, however, 
was good. 



THE SOMME SHOW 125 

On my return to Albert I found that my sec- 
tion were now constructing Russian saps and 
dugouts in the trenches opposite Thiepval, 
and we were there when the capture of this 
enormously strong fortress was effected at the 
end of September, 191 6. The underground 
defenses of the Germans at Thiepval were very 
elaborate. Many of their machine-guns would 
be run up on elevators as occasion demanded 
from the dugouts below. Thiepval had with- 
stood the most terrific hammering and pound- 
ing since July 1, of that year. 

The tanks were first introduced in the fight- 
ing near us in the battle of the Somme, and were 
very successful. 

In going up to Thiepval we drove every day 
through Aveluy Woods. These woods were 
shelled with persistent regularity and intensity 
by the enemy. One day as we were driving up, 
some shells burst among an infantry party 
marching just ahead of us on the road. Among 
the resulting casualties one of their officers was 
lying in the road with one leg blown off, while 
his orderly lay headless a few feet from him. 
A Tommy called attention to the head of the 
orderly in a tree near by. We had five casual- 



126 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

ties ourselves on this particular trip. One 
of them, not wounded very badly, danced 
with delight. "Good-by, sir, any message for 
Blighty," was his last call as we sent him back 
to the nearest aid-post. None of us enjoyed this 
daily ride through Aveluy Woods. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 

A FTER some six weeks on the Somme we 
r^L were ordered to return to Hebuterne 
and remained there during the opera- 
tions known as the battle of the Ancre. Our 
rest-camp was at Souastre, a village some three 
miles back of the front line. Souastre was shelled 
irregularly. Whenever our artillery shelled a 
village behind the Hun lines, the Germans would 
retaliate by shelling the corresponding village 
behind the British lines. Retaliation was al- 
ways a strong point with the Boches. Our 
work, which was now mostly deep-dugout con- 
struction, was in the village of Hebuterne and 
in the front and support trenches near this vil- 
lage. It had been anticipated that we would 
have captured the trenches at Gommecourt 
Wood and the German lines opposite Hebuterne 
in the Somme offensive, and as a result of this 
optimism, very little work had been done to 
repair and revet the trenches in this sector. 
127 



128 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

The rain was rapidly making them almost im- 
passable, despite the constant efforts of the 
engineers and infantry to repair them. We 
could hardly move in any of these trenches dur- 
ing the winter without a pair of rubber thigh- 
boots, and some men, going in or out alone, 
were drowned in the mud. This was not a 
rare occurrence. Many men are lost in this 
way during the winters. Our other sections 
had been working in an advanced sap which 
we called the "Z" hedge (British called this 
"Zed"), and we had continued to carry on 
repair work in the tunnels under No Man's 
Land there. It took us about three hours to 
get up to the "Z" hedge, nearly every man 
carrying some timber, and another three to 
come out. Sometimes I have taken a full 
half-hour to walk fifty yards in these advanced 
trenches, every step in mud above my waist. 
The alternative of sticking your head in the 
mud, ostrich fashion, or getting out and going 
over the top and taking your chance did not 
make it any more pleasant. We usually pre- 
ferred to get out on top. One day the general 
in command of the infantry brigade visited 
these forward saps, and as a result we were 



BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 129 

ordered to abandon them — not however be- 
fore we had paid a heavy price to hold them. 
A machine-gun section had set up a Vickers 
gun in this sap to cover the possible under- 
ground approach of the enemy and these 
parties would often be without rations or sup- 
plies for several days at a time. In addition 
to this, they were unable to light any fires on 
account of the smoke being seen from the 
close Hun trenches. Taking the tip from our 
fellows, they would heat their tea and bully 
beef (corned beef) in mess-tins with the aid of 
candles. We always sent up a few extra can- 
dles for them. The hedge here afforded a 
very useful target for the enemy, and they 
succeeded in planting many heavy minen- 
werfers around and in our sap. There were 
two entrances to this. One day just before I 
arrived a heavy minenwerfer had destroyed 
one entrance and killed three officers and four 
men. Those killed, including one engineer 
officer, had been blown to pieces. One of my 
corporals, with the rest of the shift, managed 
with infinite difficulty to bring out the wounded 
through the heavy mud. We were not at all 
sorry to say good-by to the "Zed" hedge. 



i 3 o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

Our billets in Hebuterne were the usual cel- 
lars. These we strengthened by piling sand- 
bags and anything else we could find on them. 
Like most other cellars, even when reinforced, 
they were not proof against heavy shells. We 
would often sit and wonder whether the next 
would land right on top. A six or eight inch 
shell landing squarely on it would have smashed 
it like an egg-shell. Quite a number of our 
men and some from our attached infantry work- 
ing-parties were killed in these cellars by shell- 
fire. The whistle and swish, too, as they passed 
over searching for the heavy batteries behind 
us was not too entertaining. You could hear 
them as they came, faintly at first, and with 
increasing sound until they burst with an ear- 
splitting crump. With experience we could 
determine from their sound those which were 
going to explode near. However, one is in 
doubt for a very few seconds only, though 
these seconds are very valuable. When walk- 
ing along a road, which is being shelled you 
will sometimes have time enough to jump into 
the trench which is usually alongside all roads 
subject to enemy shelling. One evening I had 
just relieved Lieutenant G., who remarked 




lit 









2&^:^**"«^ ,; .-■ ^■J&£ 






A cellar, protected by sand-bags, in the village of Hebuterne, used as a 
shelter by engineer officers. 



BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 131 

before leaving: "The Huns have a nasty hate 
on to-day, and have been plastering shells 
all around the billet." They landed a whizz- 
bang (77-mm. shell) first about 6 p. m. some 
seven feet from my cellar entrance. A few 
minutes later a 5.9-inch shell burst about 
twenty feet away in the yard, and from eight 
to ten that evening a dozen landed, all within 
twenty to thirty yards of the dugout, one of 
them carrying away the roof of the house next 
to us, and just missing the end of our cellar. 
Finally they put a whizz-bang square on the 
entrance, and almost on top of it a heavy shell 
which blew down the front sand-bag wall. 
Fortunately for us we had already built an- 
other exit in the form of a tunnel into an ad- 
joining cellar, where the cooks of the section 
held forth. The shells exploding near had 
blown out our candles each time, and we 
patiently relit them, but the last two had in 
addition blown down half a ton of bricks on us. 
We were getting decidedly peevish by this time, 
and when my orderly suggested the thought 
that was strongly in the minds of both of us — 
that retreat was in order — we proceeded to 
put thought into action and moved for the 



132 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

balance of the night to a large, safe dugout near 
us. The next day I returned to the cellar, but 
not before putting an extra tier or two of sand- 
bags on it. 

To the right of us there was an advanced 
aid-post with a mortuary above. This mor- 
tuary was in the ruins of a house which had 
no roof and only two walls. For a time the 
bodies of men killed each day in the trenches 
near by were placed here. It was an unfortu- 
nate choice. One night my men reported that 
they had seen rats running over the bodies. 
Directly I learned of this, we placed sentries 
to prevent such horrors recurring. 

One day we received a request from the bri- 
gade to investigate a mysterious crater at the 
head of Woman Street trench. It appears 
that an explosion had been heard there two 
nights earlier, and the following morning it was 
found that ten infantrymen were missing and 
a crater some twenty feet deep had been formed 
in No Man's Land just ahead of the front line 
at this point. The brigade staff could not 
understand the situation and requested that 
an investigation be made at once to determine 
whether the enemy were mining here and had 



BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 133 

blown this crater from below ground. As the 
trenches were some 200 yards apart here min- 
ing did not appear probable. I visited the site 
and later ascertained the fact that an old trench- 
mortar bomb store had been located there 
some time previously. We took out a party of 
our sappers and dug around in the very sym- 
metrically shaped crater. We unearthed some 
remnants of trench-mortar ammunition-boxes. 
What happened to the ten men was never 
definitely known, but we concluded that an 
enemy shell must have landed squarely on the 
T. M. store, detonated all the trench-mortar 
ammunition and blown out the entire gun 
crew. None of the bodies were found any- 
where in the vicinity. The night before our 
fellows went out to dig around in this crater 
an infantry bombing-party had been detailed 
to occupy it. In the morning they were all 
found bayonetted. A Boche patrol had sur- 
prised them. One man in the party who was 
wounded had managed to crawl away in the 
dark and escaped the fate of his comrades. 
As happens so often in this war, the Huns had 
not been content with killing. On the body 
of one man were found five bayonet wounds. 



i 3 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

This village of Hebuterne was well known as 
being a bad spot. The infantry preferred the 
trenches to the village cellars. The enemy 
shelled the village with unwelcome intensity 
daily and also all the roads leading to it. Our 
cellar was some fifty yards from a crossing 
where the roads radiated in five directions. 
This spot came in for more than its share of 
shelling. The fact that numerous artillery 
batteries were located in the immediate neigh- 
borhood added to the intensity with which it 
was bombarded. The road to Hebuterne from 
Sailly-au-Bois was also shelled regularly and 
at almost any hour of the day or night one 
would see wrecked and burned wagons and dead 
horses lying around in their harness. I have 
known as many as seventy casualties from one 
Hun shell at this crossroads. 

We had some four big trucks in regular use 
and these were kept busy every night in taking 
up rations, tools, timber, etc., to the trenches. 
On several occasions we had to "get out and 
get under" to avoid the splinters from shells 
bursting near. The drivers of these trucks 
were plucky fellows. It was difficult to excite 
them. One night at Hebuterne a 5.9-inch shell 



BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 135 

burst about five feet from one of our trucks. 
Six men were more or less badly wounded, 
but luckily no one was killed. They would 
drive up at the same even speed every night in 
the pitch-darkness. 

Most of the drivers were hit at some time or 
other, but always came back as soon as they 
were released from the hospitals, and carried 
on with their driving again. Not much time 
was wasted in unloading these trucks. Often 
it was done under a rain of shrapnel. When 
their work was completed the drivers would 
come into our dugout for their customary tot 
of rum. Almost nightly in coming up on these 
roads trucks and wagons would be ditched and 
hold up a long line of traffic behind them. 
Frequently it happened that a number were 
filled with 6-inch or 9.2-inch shells, and the 
waiting on the road to move on whilst the Hun 
was spattering everything around us with 
shrapnel was a little trying. There were some 
15-inch guns beside the road at Sailly-au-Bois, 
and these came in for their regular share of 
attention from enemy batteries. 

While we were constructing a number of 
deep dugouts in Hebuterne and in the trenches 



136 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

around, we found a big chalk cavern in the 
village. This useful place was discovered by 
a man accidentally falling down a well. On be- 
ing pulled out, the wide-awake sapper noticed 
an opening off the side. The cavern was ex- 
plored and several entrances opened up. Very 
useful accommodation was in this way provided 
for a large number of troops. 

On the night of November 12, 1916, I was 
trying to get some sleep in my cellar at Hebu- 
terne when about two a. m. a motorcycle des- 
patch-rider awakened me and handed me the 
following message, marked "Secret and Con- 
fidential." 

Secret. 148th Bde. No. G. 205/14. 

O. C, 1 /2nd Field Coy. R.E. . 

O. C, 18 1st Tunnelling Coy. R.E. -y 

"Z" Day is to-morrow, THIRTEENTH instant. 
ZERO hour is FIVE FORTY FIVE A.M. 

Acknowledge. 

I2.II.i6. Captain, 

Brigade Major, 148th Infantry Bde. 



BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 137 

Interpreted, this meant that three hours lat- 
er, five forty-five a. m., on the thirteenth, the 
infantry would go "over the top" on the first 
assault of the battle of the Ancre. The in- 
fantry in the trenches just in front of us were 
not to be in the attack, but were instructed to 
throw large numbers of smoke-bombs and main- 
tain rapid fire, the idea being to make a good 
blufF that they were also going over and keep 
the enemy guessing in the trenches opposite 
them. At five forty-five exactly, the artillery 
around us all burst loose, and the fireworks 
started. Several batteries of 9.2-inch how- 
itzers, not a hundred yards from us, soon tested 
the drums of our ears. The twelve-inch bat- 
teries just half a mile away also started firing 
as hard as they could, together with the others 
all around. The combined noise was naturally 
deafening, and reminded us of our experiences 
on the Somme. Above and around in all di- 
rections the whistle and swish of the shells 
made the air seem almost alive, all carrying their 
messages to the poor devils of Huns opposite us. 
The return shelling that day in Hebuterne was 
not intense. I imagine that their guns were too 
badly needed a little farther to the south. 



138 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

The push was to be made by eight divisions at 
first, and extended from about a quarter-mile 
south to Thiepval, about six miles below. We 
captured the village of Serre, just to the south, 
but were driven out again. Later on, it was 
retaken. As in almost every action, villages 
and points were captured and lost, then recap- 
tured, and so on. A Boche general and his 
staff, who were at the time inspecting the enemy 
front lines at Serre, were captured. Beau- 
mont-Hamel was taken the first day, and other 
villages to the south. At the start we captured 
over 6,000 prisoners, and our own casualties 
were very light. The weather then took a 
change to our disadvantage. The frost disap- 
peared and was followed by rain, which made 
the ground very sodden and muddy. This state 
of affairs occurred so often after the first day 
or two of an attack that it almost seemed as if 
the weather was in league with the Germans. 
Time and again it has happened that the 
British would capture the first and second ob- 
jectives and then on account of bad weather 
developing the attack would come "unstuck" 
and troops unable to advance at any speed in 
the heavy mud. 



BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 139 

We were obliged often to ride up on our motor- 
cycles at night. Some fellows got used to this 
and the regular motorcycle despatch-riders do 
it habitually, but I can't say I ever enjoyed it. 
To a short-sighted man it isn't much fun. 
The fact that one of the despatch-riders one 
night was killed by running into our truck as 
we were coming out didn't encourage me. I 
have seen some fellows blown into ditches, 
and others crashed into walls by the concussion 
of shells exploding near them. Fast riding is 
usually a necessity and many accidents happen-. 
I had many falls, but was fortunate enough to 
only spend one night in an ambulance-station. 

The observation-balloon (or kite-balloon) sec- 
tion officers had bad times occasionally. One 
day at Souastre I noticed one of these" sausages" 
being carried away by a strong wind. The 
cable had broken and the wind was carrying 
the balloon very quickly toward the enemy 
trenches. As I looked up I saw the first officer 
observer drop out, hanging on to his parachute. 
Somehow it failed to open, and he dropped 
over 4,000 feet like a stone. The other man 
probably stopped to secure his maps and instru- 
ments, and a few seconds later, he dropped. 



i 4 o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

Several hundred feet below the balloon his para- 
chute opened and he came slowly sailing down, 
some four or five minutes later, fortunately 
landing in our lines. In the meantime two 
flying men had raced after the balloon and set 
the hydrogen bag on fire with tracer bullets 
from their Lewis guns, in order to prevent it 
from falling into the hands of the Huns. The 
poor fellow whose parachute had not opened 
was formerly a well-known and popular Lon- 
don actor, Mr. Basil Hallam. 

Busy as all the engineers were, we couldn't 
build enough dugouts for all the troops. One 
day I went over to a very inadequate and shal- 
low shelter in a part of the front line which was 
used as a company officer's dugout. They 
needed a new one badly, and we arranged to 
start the work the next day. As bad luck 
would have it, the Boches landed a five-nine 
on it that same night and killed or severely 
wounded every officer and orderly in the dug- 
out at the time. 

Occasionally some of the men would get 
what is known as "shell-shock"; most of the 
cases are undoubtedly genuine, but a small 
few are suspected malingerers. To reduce the 



BATTLE OF THE ANCRE 141 

number of the latter, most of the British army 
doctors required evidence confirming the de- 
tails of the specific shell explosion causing the 
shock, that is, when it was not the result of 
cumulative conditions. My experience is that 
when a shell bursts very close to you, your 
heart seems to tighten and jump up. Actual 
displacement of the heart really occurs some- 
times, my medical friends tell me, and the old 
expression of "one's heart is in one's mouth" 
takes on a real meaning. Fortunately in most 
cases as one becomes accustomed to shelling, 
the shock to the nervous system decreases, and 
an explosion or concussion which would thor- 
oughly unnerve a new man is taken by a veteran 
with a nonchalance which certainly shows 
the development of strong will-power. How- 
ever, the continued nervous strain tells its tale 
in gradually lowering the vitality of the men 
exposed to constant shelling. 



CHAPTER X 
THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 

IN January, 1917, we were directed to pro- 
ceed from Hebuterne to the trenches near 
Arras. Our rest-camp was at Beaumetz, 
a village about two and a half miles back of the 
lines, and our work was the construction of 
forward underground galleries under No Man's 
Land and deep-dugout construction in Arras 
and the villages and trenches to the south. 
Another man and myself were billeted at B. 
with a French family, four generations of whom 
were occupying the kitchen, while we used 
what was formerly the parlor. I think we 

paid Mme. about five francs a month 

rent (which is incidentally by way of being 
quite a contrast to the rent of apartments in 
Washington this last winter). My forward 
billet was at Achicourt, a suburb of Arras. 
This part of the line was then pretty quiet 
and we were not sorry to get into a compara- 
tively peaceful sector for a while. In Achi- 

142 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 143 

court, a village about half a mile from the Ger- 
mans' front line, a few civilians were still living. 
The troops would buy eggs, butter, bread, 
vegetables, and such like articles from these 
French residents. Another man and I used 
to make a practice of going down to the house 
of a French carpenter's wife and having the 
usual meal of omelet, "petit pois" or "hari- 
cot vert" and cafe au lait. She was a wonder- 
ful cook, as most of the French women are, 
and seemed to find a good deal of amusement 
in our attempts at conversation with her. Like 
many other French women still living in their 
homes close to the line, shelling did not bother 
her much. We used to have our meals in her 
kitchen. The room adjoining, the parlor, had 
been entirely destroyed by a shell, and several 
bullets had gone through the window of the 
kitchen. Shells would often land in the road 
outside and in the garden at the back while we 
were at meals here. 

Madam B. would immediately order her 
young son, aged about twelve, and her daughter, 
about eighteen, to light a lamp and go down to 
the cellar while the shelling continued. Her 
husband was serving with the French army at 



i 4 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

Verdun and returned on a week's "permission" 
(leave) during the time we were in this village. 
It amused the Tommies very much to think 
that any soldier would care to spend his leave 
in a village so close to the line. We were con- 
stantly advising the civilians to move back to a 
safer area, particularly the women, but the poor 
people had not much choice. The British army 
authorities I understand offered to move them 
all, together with their portable belongings, 
but they were evidently afraid of having their 
houses destroyed and their little farms or gar- 
dens torn up. Their love of home was stronger 
than their fear of death, or else they couldn't 
understand. At any rate, very few of them 
left, even when the shelling became more active. 
Many of these civilians were later killed and 
gassed. We also came in for our share of shell- 
ing later at our billets here; the cellars were 
small and did not provide sufficient accommo- 
dation for all of us. Shortly before the be- 
ginning of the retreat of the enemy, which oc- 
curred on our front on March 18th, they gave 
us a last dose of heavy shelling. This day they 
landed at least ioo medium and heavy shells 
within a radius of 50 yards around us. I had 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 145 

more than my share of close calls during this 
bombardment. A shell had just burst in the 
road near our little ruin and I walked out to 
see what had happened and heard another one 
coming straight for me. I ran to the nearest 
wall and dropped alongside. The whizz-bang 
burst about 8 feet away from me on the same 
wall. I happened to be the nearest man to 
the shell, but was only hit with a brick in the 
middle of my back, knocking my wind out, but 
not doing any real damage. One poor fellow 
behind me was killed and two others wounded. 
Incidentally I got the full concussion along the 
brick wall, and my ears were ringing for an hour 
afterward. 

I then hurried to one of my section billets to 
order the men to their cellars. That same 
morning the Boche had put one shell through 
the wall of the second story of this building, 
but as luck would have it we had no men 
billeted up-stairs. Just before I reached a barn 
occupied by eleven of my men in the yard of 
this billet, a 4.2-inch shell burst on top of the 
east brick wall. Poor Holloway had his head 
blown off by the bricks, another fine lad, Mc- 
Nulty, was mortally wounded with shrapnel in 



146 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

his lungs and stomach; and six others wounded 
less seriously. The remaining three were not 
touched, but were badly shaken up. After 
covering the bodies of the poor lads who were 
killed, we bandaged up the other fellows as 
well as we could and took them down to the 
aid-post in the village. Infantry quartered 
in the next house to us had over seventeen 
casualties from one shell the same day. 

After getting all my men in the cellars, I 
hunted for a cellar myself. This was not easy 
as they were by this time pretty full. On my 
way I was caught in several buildings when they 
were hit. Twice I stood in the doorway be- 
tween two rooms and watched the tiles falling 
all around as shells burst on the roofs over me. 
Presently, I found temporary shelter and stayed 
there for fifteen minutes until the worst was 
over. A house with two cellars next to one of 
our billets and on the same street was closed up 
securely. I obtained permission from the town 
major (the officer who has charge of all billeting 
accommodations in the French villages) to use 
this billet, providing I could get the consent of 
a French lady who was acting as a kind of watch- 
dog for the absent owner. Madame was 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 147 

loth to give her consent. I'm afraid I was not 
very patient. We had already that day lost 
several fine lads through a shortage of cellar 
shelters, so we proceeded to take over the billets 
anyhow and moved to rooms above the stores 
of household treasures which had been placed 
in the cellars for safe-keeping. 

Billets near ammunition-dumps or trucks 
filled with shells were not popular. Eleven 
large trucks with several hundred 9.2 shells in 
them were parked in the square of this village 
for several hours. A Boche shell hit one of 
them. All the houses surrounding the square 
were levelled by the resulting detonation and 
over 200 men killed and wounded. It was im- 
possible afterward to find a piece of wood or 
steel from these trucks larger than a brick in 
size. During the retreat it was a very common 
occurrence for enemy shells to explode large 
artillery ammunition-dumps in this way on 
account of the fact that it was impossible to 
get them under adequate cover. Every night 
one could count dozens of fires caused by enemy 
shells hitting the cordite propellant of bat- 
teries. 

We were billeted for some time in Arras, one 



148 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

of the best laid-out cities in France, which be- 
fore the war had a population of about 40,000. 

It had suffered severely from bombardment 
in 1914 and 191 5. The trenches ran right 
through the town. The granite blocks of the 
pave in the streets had been taken up in many 
places and formed into breastworks, with loop- 
holes arranged for rifle and machine-gun fire. 
The Arras railway-station was quite interest- 
ing. It had been formerly a handsome and 
well-built structure of steel and glass. Now the 
glass was all broken, but the steel frame had 
remained intact. Along one platform a pave 
breastworks, shoulder-high, had been built, 
while between the rails, many of which were 
broken, grass was growing. It was a melan- 
choly sight. 

We were fortunate enough to be billeted for 
a couple of weeks in the office of a sugar-re- 
finery. Here we had leather armchairs, desks, 
stoves, and most of the appurtenances of 
civilization. Seventy-five per cent of the houses 
and buildings in Arras had been hit at some 
time or other; those undamaged or not so 
badly destroyed had their rooms and cup- 
boards locked and paper seals placed, warning 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 149 

soldiers not to open them. Shells are no re- 
specters of seals, however, so it happened that 
many houses had been more or less destroyed 
by enemy shell-fire, and all the furniture ex- 
posed to the weather. Although orders against 
looting were strictly enforced, it nevertheless 
happened that many dugouts in the trenches 
in this vicinity were furnished quite com- 
fortably. One would see large mirrors and 
comfortable armchairs in them, and in some 
cases even pianos. 

There was a doctor's house about four houses 
away from the one we occupied, and one eve- 
ning while the Huns were shelling us they 
landed an "obus" right into the upper story 
of this house with the result that the two 
stories were merged into one. The next morn- 
ing we examined the damage. The house had 
been very nicely furnished and a piano and 
some armchairs were untouched; but every- 
thing else was badly wrecked. So the work of 
destruction goes on — a shell breaks open a 
house and lays the furniture open to the 
weather, which soon spoils it. 

The trenches here had been occupied by the 
French until the spring of 1916, and they had 



ISO FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

also evidently made themselves as comfortable 
as possible. Before the retreat and during the 
day all stores in Arras would be closed, and the 
city was apparently almost deserted, very few 
soldiers being seen on the streets; but at night 
things were very active, troops marching in 
and out at all hours, and all supplies going up. 
Such stores as remained to do business were 
open from six to eight in the evening. There 
was one street, the Rue St.-Quentin, which had 
been dubbed "piano row." When we reached 
Arras, this was a street of ruins, but an in- 
fantry officer whom I met here told me he had 
been billeted in Arras in the previous spring 
and that every house in this street then had a 
piano in it. Not even a chair was to be found 
then. A number of French gendarmes and 
British military police were protecting the 
property of former residents and enforcing army 
regulations in regard to looting. The troops 
sometimes used the furniture found in the 
houses, but took good care of it and handed it 
over to the parties succeeding them in these 
billets. To be sent to the Arras sector before 
the retreat was an "end devoutly to be wished 
for" by all British forces. 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 151 

Previous to the German retreat one of our 
sections working with a New Zealand mining 
company, had opened out all the old sewers of 
the city and constructed tunnels in the chalk 
through to the front trenches, and in some 
places these tunnels were continued as far 
underground as the Boche support-line. Dur- 
ing the battle of Arras thousands of troops 
would be marched up the main St.-Pol- 
Arras road, and then underground to come out 
on top again at the Boche second line. 

In February I obtained another leave to 
England, and crossed during the first week of 
the widely advertised 1917 Boche submarine 
blockade. The U-boats did not bother us 
much in crossing the Channel, however, as we 
always had torpedo-boat escorts. During the 
nineteen months I served in the trenches, I had 
four furloughs, and in this I was particularly 
lucky. As a matter of fact, leave for most 
troops was often cancelled, especially for a few 
weeks previous to a big offensive, but as our 
tunnelling companies did not obtain the usual 
divisional rest behind the lines, we were always 
allowed our furlough, and mighty welcome it 
invariably was. It happened frequently that 



iS2 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

infantrymen would just reach England for a 
ten-day leave when they would receive a wire 
from their commanding officers informing them 
that their leave was cancelled and ordering 
them to immediately rejoin their unit back in 
the trenches. This was the epitome of bad 
luck and resulted in much gnashing of teeth 
and profanity generally. 

For a week previous to March 18 we had 
noticed many fires in the enemy lines and heard 
numerous explosions in the villages behind 
their trenches. Everything seemed to indicate 
that the enemy were preparing to retire along 
the trenches opposite us, as they had been doing 
to the south. Our own plans for an offensive 
were nipped in the bud by this untimely re- 
treat of the Boche. It came earlier than was 
anticipated by the British Staff. For our part 
we had nearly finished the construction of a 
large number of dugouts close up which were 
to be used as assembly shelters for large attack- 
ing forces. On March 18 they evacuated the 
trenches at Beaurains, a village in the enemy 
lines across from us at Achicourt. Evidently 
they had abandoned these lines on the night 
of the 17th. On the morning of the 18th our 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 153 

infantry reported that there were no Germans 
in the trenches opposite. 

In the afternoon another man and I crossed 
over to Beaurains to investigate any dugouts 
which might have been left there. We only 
found two or three which had not been de- 
stroyed. These were all very deep and were 
strengthened at the entrance from the trench 
with heavily reinforced concrete and in most 
cases there was a concrete wall also on the para- 
dos side of the trench opposite the entrance. 
As they were shelling the village heavily with 
eight-inch shells as they retreated, we did not 
tarry longer than necessary. The next day we 
went across again and followed up the retreat- 
ing Huns until we came within rifle-range. Our 
infantry had pursued them as hard as they 
could, but they were considerably handicapped 
on account of the fact that no supplies except 
what they could carry in their packs could be 
brought forward. The infantry had a hard 
time. The destruction of the road made it 
impossible for them to use their transport. It 
was very difficult for them to carry up sufficient 
rifle and machine-gun ammunition, much less 
adequate rations and water, I saw many poor 



154 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

chaps drinking from the muddy shell-holes, 
and they lived for several days on much-re- 
duced "iron rations." Everywhere along the 
area of their retreat the Germans had blown 
big craters in the roads, craters from 30 to 100 
feet deep and from 50 to 200 feet wide. These 
were blown at all crossroads, and in addition, 
at every quarter-of-a-mile interval on the roads. 
Their work of destruction everywhere was most 
thorough. All buildings and walls had been 
destroyed. Those alongside roads were felled 
across the latter — anything to tie up traffic. 
We seldom found a wall left which was over 
three feet in height. 

Cellars, dugouts, and shelters of any de- 
scription were obliterated or their entrances 
had been closed by firing charges of high 
explosives. The dugouts and ruins in many 
places were still on fire or smouldering. All 
trees were sawn off within a foot to eighteen 
inches of their base, this work having evidently 
been done with small gasolene saws. Large 
trees were everywhere felled and left lying 
squarely across the roads. All wells were 
either blown up or had been poisoned by chemi- 
cals. The latter course must have involved 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 155 

the use of very large quantities of chemicals. 
The work assigned to us later was to unearth 
and withdraw all mines left in dugout entrances 
and elsewhere, and pick up all bomb-traps and 
devilish contrivances of a similar nature. 

This kept us very busy. Thousands of these 
had been laid. All railroads were undermined; 
the first train going over near us at Achiet-le- 
Grand was destroyed. Contact-mines were 
left under the roads in many places, especially 
at crossroads, and these would be fired when 
any heavy vehicle or gun crossed them. In 
other places they had placed mines with delay- 
action fuses. A large brigade dugout head- 
quarters near us at B. went up in smoke about 
ten days after being occupied. Most of the 
dugout mines were placed about half-way 
down the entrances on the right or left side, 
and these had been tamped with sand-bags, 
detonators connected with leads which were 
fastened to the wooden steps, and these would 
be fired as men walked down. It required a 
careful eye to detect them. We would notice 
some slight change in the timber at these places 
and invariably carefully withdraw this and 
the sand-bag tamping and take out the det- 



156 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

onators and the high explosives. Running 
short of high explosives, the Germans often 
threw in bombs, trench-mortars, etc., to add 
to the charges. 

Numerous bombs which a touch would fire 
were found everywhere. In the barbed wire 
on top of the trenches we would find the Ger- 
man hairbrush bombs tied by their fuses to the 
wire, with the latter looped in a half circle so 
that as a soldier walked along he would catch 
his foot in the loop and fire the bomb. In 
the trenches we found thousands of the German 
egg-bombs connected to and underneath the 
duckboards or trench boards laid on the floor of 
all their trenches. 

These would be fired by any one stepping on 
the duckboard, and as there was no other place 
to step in the trench, it was a case of Hobson's 
choice. It afforded us much amusement to 
explode these by throwing bricks on them from 
behind cover. 

In such dugouts as were left we would find 
attractive souvenirs hung up; to most of these 
bombs would be attached. Some poor chap 
would see a good-looking German helmet hung 
on a nail in the dugout, attempt to remove it, 




In a German trench. 
This picture was found by Captain Trounce in a trench which was captured by the British. 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 157 

and fire the bomb attached. We decided to 
go pretty carefully and gingerly about this 
work and were lucky enough to get through 
with only ten casualties in our company. After 
a few days it was not necessary to caution any 
troops about these little devices which the 
Boches had provided for us. They would 
hardly dare step on a stick or twig for fear it 
was connected to a bomb. We found the 
German trenches everywhere were honeycombed 
with subterranean galleries. The majority of 
these tunnels were from twenty to forty feet in 
depth, and close-timbered with hard wood, 
usually four-inch oak. Mile after mile of 
galleries, usually six feet by four in size, were 
found, and all were of first-class construction, 
with the timbers well braced and wedged. It 
was a constant source of wonder to us as to 
where they obtained this vast amount of lum- 
ber and how the Huns had been able to get it 
up in such quantities. 

I was detailed one day to make a search with 
a small party for a cavern which existed in the 
village of Mercatel. I took over the men and 
we searched very thoroughly throughout the 
village. Although the cavern undoubtedly ex- 



1 58 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

isted it was impossible to find any entrance; 
not only that, but every cellar, dugout, or 
shelter of any description in Mercatel had been 
likewise very systematically blown in. At one 
crossroads in this village, the enemy had blown 
a crater some sixty feet wide, and it had been 
necessary to build a road of broken brick 
through some ruins to make a turnout for the 
constant traffic. This work was continually 
shelled by the Huns, and furnishes an illustra- 
tion of some of the difficulties the engineers en- 
countered at every similar crater blown in the 
roads in this advance. All the troops possible 
who could be assigned to building roads were so 
detailed, but the magnitude of the repairs 
naturally slowed up our pursuit of the enemy. 
In the pursuit of the Hun, the light artillery 
was sent up as quickly as possible; on account 
of the frightful condition of the roads, it was 
impossible at first to use the tractors for the 
heavy guns. The weather was very bad, al- 
most continual rain. The loss of horses was 
appalling. I understand that 200,000 of these 
poor animals succumbed to the effects of the 
hard weather, exposure, heavy work, and 
shortage of feed. At the side of all roads you 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 159 

would see dozens of horses lying dead, stretched 
in the mud. Once they fell in the mud, it 
was next to impossible to get them on their 
feet again. Among the mules, however, there 
was little loss. One would see 50 dead horses 
to 1 dead mule. It was a pitiful sight. Nearly 
all of the lighter guns and howitzers were taken 
up with 3 teams of horses, while the heavier 
guns were brought up after much delay by the 
usual Holt Caterpillars when the roads were 
repaired sufficiently to bear the traffic. 

We captured thousands of prisoners in the 
retreat. Almost every day big batches would 
be brought in and placed in the barbed-wire 
prisoners' cages of every division on this front. 
Dazed, dirty-looking specimens for the most 
part they were, too. Men of all ages were in- 
cluded, from schoolboys to men of apparently 
nearly fifty years of age. In almost every 
instance they had been subjected to intense 
bombardment for several hours or days, and 
they certainly showed the effects, being in a 
sloppy, dishevelled condition. A few of them 
could speak English, but, being very carefully 
guarded, it was next to impossible to talk to 
them. 



160 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

A few were apparently sullen, but the ma- 
jority looked as if they were pretty well pleased 
with themselves and realized the war was over 
for them at any rate. The little German 
prisoners seemed to be all tin hat and boots. 
They wore the clumsy boots which we associate 
with farmers. The wounded were always given 
first-aid treatment and our men would give 
them cans of "bully beef," biscuits, and ciga- 
rettes, and these were accepted with every evi- 
dence of appreciation. After spending a few 
hours in the prisoners' cages, which were usually 
placed two to three miles back of the front lines, 
they would be marched to more permanent 
camps beyond shell-range, and from the latter 
would be taken out daily to work on the roads, 
railroads, etc., under charge of their own N. 
C. O.'s and an occasional British Tommy. 
Thousands of these German prisoners are to 
be seen all over France. 

Shortly after the beginning of the retreat of 
Arras, we were billeted in the village of Blair- 
ville, a short distance south. Here we occupied 
an old ruin, which had evidently been the quar- 
ters of some German officers before we arrived. 
From the cellars of this house we could walk 



THE RETREAT OF ARRAS 161 

back to their old front-line trenches in under- 
ground galleries for over half a mile without 
once coming on top. In fact, one could go 
through the entire village underground in this 
way. The day after our arrival I noticed a 
French woman coming out of a garden near by. 
She was carrying something in a yellow scarf 
and looking very pleased with herself. In 
answer to my inquiry, she informed me that she 
had just dug up from her old garden the savings 
of a lifetime — several thousand francs. The 
Boche had occupied the village for nearly three 
years, but had failed to unearth her little for- 
tune. Many old residents had adopted the 
same means of secreting their money and re- 
covered it after the German retreat. 

The relief of the French civilians at the re- 
treating Hun was very marked. As one French 
girl rather curiously expressed it to me: "Boche 
partir finish wind up now." Everywhere possi- 
ble they started to rebuild their roofs and walls, 
and emerged from their partial cellar life with 
great satisfaction. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 

Ik BOUT three weeks after the enemy had 
/■^L retired on our front opposite Beaurains 
a series of operations started which 
were afterward known as the battle of Arras. 
These were practically started with the splendid 
capture of the Vimy Ridge by the Canadians. 
All our fellows were highly delighted at this 
event, mainly by reason of the fact that we had 
served there for three months in the previous 
spring, and could appreciate the extraordinary 
difficulty of the task of the Canadians in cap- 
turing it, especially La Folie Farm. These 
positions were captured on April 9. Many 
other villages to the north and south of Arras 
were captured on following days. It was re- 
ported that the First and Third Armies took 
over 13,000 prisoners in the first few days of 
this offensive. 

Unfortunately, on the 12th of April the in- 
162 



THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 163 

evitable bad weather ensued, and this con- 
siderably handicapped our efforts everywhere 
in this vicinity. The tanks were again much in 
evidence, being used in hundreds. They were 
brought up at night along the sunken roads 
and behind ridges, camouflaged very inge- 
niously, and then used at dawn the following 
mornings in attacking with the infantry. 

Two types of tanks were used by the British, 
male and female, the female being the smaller 
variety. The male tank was equipped with six 
Lewis automatic rifles and two 6-pounders, the 
latter firing armor-piercing shells, while the 
smaller tanks were provided with Lewis guns 
only. I noticed one of the female tanks was 
equipped with 6-cylinder silent Knight engines 
and developed approximately 120 H. P. It 
had 12 inches of clearance above the ground 
and was about 8 feet high by about 12 feet 
wide in the centre, and 25 feet long. The male 
tanks were larger and heavier, some of these 
being, I think, more than 45 tons in weight. 
Afterward in conversation with one of the tank 
commanders he informed me that they had 
struck Boche barbed-wire entanglements that 
day over 10 feet in height and extremely thick. 



i6 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

All the tanks have pet names given them by 
their crews. 

The bombardment preceding these daily 
attacks was very intense, more so even than 
those of the Somme operations. It was a very 
interesting spectacle both by day and night. 
Close up one could hear the continuous roar 
from the guns and at night the flashes would 
light up the sky all around. Most of the bat- 
teries were set up on the sides of roads. In the 
retreat and the fast succeeding offensive there 
had been neither time nor opportunity for the 
gunners to construct their usual emplacements. 
It was appalling to consider the cost of some of 
these bombardments. As an example, the 
9.2-inch howitzer shells, thousands of which 
were fired weekly by each battery, cost about 
$150 apiece. 

In many of the daylight attacks the assault- 
ing infantry would wear small tin plates on 
their backs. These would flash in the sunlight 
and enable the gunners to keep them in sight as 
they advanced over the ridges while they main- 
tained an effective barrage ahead. Many dif- 
ficulties were encountered in bringing up guns, 
ammunition, and supplies. On account of the 



THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 165 

state of the roads, which for a long time were 
almost impassable, the traffic had to be handled 
with much judgment and care. One-way traffic 
routes were established in many places, and 
military police, usually from cavalry units, 
were posted by the road control officers at all 
crossroads. Tie-ups frequently occurred, often 
resulting in a line of traffic a quarter to half a 
mile long being held up. The Boche airmen 
promptly took advantage of this situation by 
flying over and dropping bombs on us. While 
we were on road-work it was our business to 
keep the trucks and wagons steadily moving 
along. Whenever a truck was ditched we made 
every one climb down and get behind the 
wheels and move it off into a field out of the 
way, or get it out onto the road again. 

Since the retreat had started we had been 
living half the time on our "iron rations," the 
latter consisting of bully-beef (corned beef), 
hard biscuits, small cubes of Oxo, with tea 
and sugar. The tea and sugar were usually car- 
ried up in a sand-bag, and when boiled formed 
a curious concoction which tasted strongly of 
sand-bag. 

The open warfare which developed in this 



166 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

retreat was welcomed by all ranks, and their 
increased cheerfulness and rise of spirits were 
very marked. The enemy losses must have 
been extremely high. In every village, and 
alongside all roads, the bodies of German sol- 
diers could be seen. I was in Neuville-Vitasse 
the day after it was captured and saw their 
dead lying in hundreds in the ditches, on the 
wire, and in the brick ruins. Ghastly sights 
they were too. The front line of the famous 
Hindenburg trenches ran through this village. 
As we walked into the village we noticed a 
broken German machine-gun left on a simple 
earth platform, in a shallow trench by the side 
of the road. It appeared that the man in 
charge of this gun had sold his life dearly, for 
fifty yards beyond some sixty of our poor fel- 
lows had been killed by its fire and were already 
buried there. The infantry were fighting hard 
at Cherisy, a short distance on our right, and 
many of their "walking cases" and "stretcher 
cases" (wounded) passed us going back to the 
nearest ambulance-station. 

The fighting in the air was very active. Ob- 
servation-balloons were up in large numbers. 
During this time I saw one of our planes bring 



THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 167 

down six enemy balloons in less than half an 
hour. The airman's usual plan was to suddenly 
drop out of a cloud away above them and let 
fall a bomb on the hydrogen bags. These 
would at once burst into flames, and the ob- 
servers would seldom have time to get into 
their parachutes. 

It was a common practice when the Huns 
were shelling our balloons, which, by the way, 
afford a nice large target for shrapnel, for our 
observers to signal the crew on the winch-truck 
below to pull them down and then send up an 
empty balloon again for the Huns to shoot at. 
No doubt the same ruse is adopted on each side 
of No Man's Land, but I can vouch for the 
fact that much German powder was wasted in 
this way. 

The work of the Canadian railway-construc- 
tion engineers was very fine here. They re- 
built the old standard-gauge French lines 
which the Germans had destroyed and carried 
the new roads up to within a mile of the then 
front lines in the Hindenburg trenches. They 
were forced to rebuild many trestle-bridges, 
and their pile-driver crews carried on the work 
with great rapidity, calmness, and efficiency. 



168 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

The steam from their upright boilers provided 
an excellent target for Fritz and they were 
shelled consistently, but nevertheless the Ca- 
nucks accomplished the work successfully. 
Twelve-inch naval guns were run up on this 
standard-gauge railroad and often fired from 
one to two miles back of the trenches. Previous 
to the retreat of 1917 it had evidently been more 
or less the policy of the British to rely mainly 
on their mechanical transport rather than on 
light railroads and standard-gauge railroads 
for transportation of supplies to the most ad- 
vanced zones. 

Since that time the general tendency has been 
to construct the light railroads almost up to 
the support-line, or to points within a mile or 
less behind the front trenches. The standard- 
gauge railroads also are now carried up much 
closer. On most sectors on the British fronts 
the light railways are now laid right up to the 
front line and supplies sent up on them at night. 
Previous to this time it was the exception 
rather than the rule to take them up so far. 
In this change they have more or less followed 
the example of the Boche engineers, whose 
light and standard-gauge roads are run up very 
close to their forward trenches. 



THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 169 

The main difficulty in the constant use of 
large trucks or motor-vehicles was that the 
roads could not stand the constant and heavy 
wear on them. Adequate maintenance for 
the roads for the last two or three miles was out 
of the question, on account of the lack of men 
and material necessary for their repairs, to 
say nothing of constant hostile shelling. Dur- 
ing the previous winters, road control had been 
established, and the most direct routes to the 
firing-trenches were often closed for weeks at a 
time, while all heavy traffic was routed along 
third-class roads, which were often double the 
distance of the more direct roads. 

During the first week or two of this offensive 
we were employed on repairing the destroyed 
roads or building new ones. In many places 
where they crossed the old trenches we were 
obliged to take out the timber from the German 
trenches and dugouts, and corduroy the roads 
with it. Their lumber proved very useful. 
In many other instances we used the only 
material available — brick from the ruins of the 
buildings near by. These brick roads were 
naturally not much good, but they served our 
purpose for a week or two. We found con- 
siderable quantities of German high explosives 



170 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

in various dugouts. These we used in de- 
molishing many of their own concrete emplace- 
ments, being able later to utilize the concrete 
so obtained in our work of road-repairing. The 
large trees which they had felled in such num- 
bers across our path gave us much trouble. 

The drainage was of first importance. With 
the exception of the main metalled or pave 
roads, which invariably have ditches running 
along each side, the majority had no culverts 
of any description. It was very necessary for 
us to construct narrow drainage ditches along 
the sides and run these off into deep sumps 
dug in the adjoining fields from ten to twenty 
feet on either side of the road. This is prac- 
tically the same method that we adopted in 
draining most of the communication-trenches. 
In the advance and the half-open warfare then 
proceeding, the infantry and gunners would 
carve little "funk-holes" or shelters under 
or into the banks of the roads, or use their 
waterproof sheets to cover the little huts they 
built with low walls of sand-bags filled with 
dirt. 

On account of the Germans having de- 
stroyed practically all of their dugouts and 



THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 171 

shelters, there was little protection for us from 
their constant and heavy bombardment. Our 
only resource was to jump into the trenches 
which lined almost every road. As a matter 
of fact, trenches are fairly good protection 
and we were always glad to use them. 

In addition to our rebuilding the highways 
we were engaged in making a reconnaissance 
of all the captured district in this area, and per- 
fecting plans for the thorough salvaging of all 
enemy material left behind. The amount 
and value of this was very great and included 
rails, timber, iron, ammunition, explosives, and 
many other useful things. A light railway 
was constructed for several miles in the old 
No Man's Land and millions of dollars' worth 
of material recovered, even including the iron 
knife-rests for supporting barbed wire. 

We used very large quantities of the old 
German dugout timber in constructing new 
dugouts in our recently captured positions. 

It was common practice by this time to start 
the construction of new deep-mined dugouts 
if the trenches were occupied a week only. In 
the past the British were always optimistic 
about capturing the other fellows' trenches 



172 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

before long and had contented themselves 
with very frail, easily built shelters. As a 
natural result the casualties had been enor- 
mous. 

It was not surprising to us that the morale 
of the German troops should be so inferior to 
ours. The fact that they practically lived un- 
derground most of the time, and even when on 
duty in the trenches above usually occupied 
one of their heavily reinforced concrete or thick 
steel-plated "pill-boxes," readily explained their 
rooted objection to facing the music on top. 
When our sentries were on duty they had prac- 
tically no protection except, perhaps, the very 
occasional use of a sort of steel breastplate 
and always a sharp pair of eyes. 

The German emplacements or strong points, 
often referred to as "pill-boxes," were built 
in the most solid manner. The reinforcing of 
the concrete was usually accomplished with the 
use of round steel bars, rails, and I-beams 
placed at very close intervals in a rich mixture 
of concrete, while the foundations were deep 
and also well constructed. 

Many of the steel-plate emplacements were 
used. These were usually constructed of steel 



THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 173 

plates two or more inches thick, bolted to- 
gether and embedded in a concrete foundation. 
As in the case of the concrete strong points, they 
would nearly always withstand direct hits 
from shells of average caliber. We found many 
"pill-boxes," with three-inch shells sticking out 
of the steel reinforcing rods. 

We were camped under canvas for several 
weeks at the village of Boyelles, about two miles 
back. Within a hundred yards of us was placed 
a large ammunition-dump, including many gas- 
shells. No cover for them could be obtained, so 
the shells were merely placed on the ground 
and covered with tarpaulins. Every night we 
were strafed hard at this camp, but, luckily, 
the dump was not hit. One night, we were 
quietly playing cards in our camp when a 
Taube dropped five bombs in quick succession 
within twenty yards of our tents, killing four 
horses and two men. This bomb-dropping was 
then, as now, a common occurrence behind the 
lines. 

The work of the ambulance men and drivers 
during these days was splendid. On May 3 
another man and I were watching with our 
glasses from an assembly-trench very near 



174 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

the shelling of an aid-post with Boche eight- 
inch shells. This post was in a dugout off" the 
side of the road and the Huns were placing 
nearly every one of these heavy shells squarely 
on top of it or on the middle of the road. Dur- 
ing the thick of this terrific bombardment we 
saw several Ford ambulance drivers bring their 
cars up, load their cases, and drive calmly 
away again. 

The next day one of the infantry officers on 
our front who was scheduled to lead an attack 
"over the top" got started through some mis- 
calculation five minutes before the appointed 
zero hour. The whole of his party ran into 
our own barrage and were nearly all blotted 
out. The same officer survived — but reached 
a dressing-station near us quite out of his 
mind. 

Up the road a short distance from our camp 
was an infantry company officers' dugout, with 
another near them occupied by their orderlies. 
One night in May a Boche eight-inch shell 
burst on top of the orderlies' dugout and buried 
them completely. Unfortunately, the fact was 
not discovered until daylight, and when the 
entrance was cleaned out again the men had 



THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 175 

been dead for some time. So many were 
buried by shell explosions in this way that all 
dugouts are now constructed with two or more 
entrances. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE HINDENBURG LINE 

ON May 20 we engineered a most suc- 
cessful underground operation, and 
very materially aided our infantry in 
capturing another 500 yards of the famous 
Hindenburg line. In order to understand the 
situation more clearly, I will endeavor to ex- 
plain briefly the construction of these Hinden- 
burg-line trenches. They had undoubtedly 
been constructed during the months previous 
to the German retreat and were cleverly planned 
and executed. It was apparent that the 
enemy had intended to retreat to them and to 
hold them at any cost, and their subsequent 
capture by the British must have occasioned 
the Boche General Staff considerable surprise 
and pain. It was evident that the Germans 
last year, instead of constructing armored tanks 
to oppose ours, had decided to build large, deep 
trenches which they hoped would prove in 
most cases an insurmountable obstacle to the 

176 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 177 

British tanks. The tanks could not normally 
cross a very wide trench, but the terrific artillery 
bombardment of the British succeeded in level- 
ling off the trenches so that a tank commander 
by careful observation would be able to spot 
places at intervals over which he could wad- 
dle his machine. The usual three lines — re- 
serve, support, and front — had been built, very 
heavy, wide, and dense barbed-wire obstacles 
separating them. All of these trenches were 
approximately twelve to fourteen feet deep 
and fourteen feet wide at the top. Opening 
from the sides at about fifty yards' intervals 
were dugout entrances built at an angle of 
forty-five degrees to the surface. 

These entrances all opened out at the bottom 
into a uniform gallery six feet by four in size. 
The galleries ran underground for miles; one 
could go down an entrance in one village and 
come up again ten or more miles away in an- 
other. Everywhere there was an overhead 
cover of hard chalk and clay of from thirty to 
forty feet. As happens in nearly all of the 
Boche underground work, the tunnels and dug- 
outs were all built of four-inch oak case sets, 
closely timbered throughout. On both sides of 



178 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

the tunnel at frequent intervals small chambers 
were cut out for the use of officers, non-coms., 
and cooks. In the main galleries the sides 
were lined with double bunks, in size six feet 
by two, made roughly of two-by-four lumber 
with chicken wire nailed across for the men to 
sleep on. 

As these bunks took up about two feet of 
the four-foot width of gallery, it must have 
made it very difficult for the stretcher-bearers 
to move the wounded out. The enemy in- 
cidentally had very accurate surveys of these 
trenches and could always be relied on to place 
their shells squarely on or in these captured 
trenches. 

Their former German garrisons had done 
themselves very well, and many evidences of 
comfort were found which are absent from our 
own trenches. 

At intervals of approximately ioo yards the 
Germans had built reinforced concrete em- 
placements, with usually the top of the emplace- 
ment, or pill-box, from a foot to 18 inches above 
the surface of the surrounding ground. These 
well-nigh impregnable positions were all very 
ingeniously camouflaged, and could not be de- 





View from rear of a typical German reinforced concrete machine-gun 
emplacement. Taken on the Hindenburg line south of Arras. 

Although the trench itself was blown to pieces by British artillery fire and the machine- 
gun crew either killed or captured, no harm was done to the concrete emplacement. 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 179 

tected by the sharpest eyes from the direction 
of our trenches until one was almost on top of 
them; and even then the only thing to be seen 
were one or two firing loopholes. The illustra- 
tion shown here was from a photograph taken 
in the Hindenburg line from behind the "pill- 
box," where, of course, no screening was neces- 
sary. 

It will be readily seen that this emplacement 
had not been damaged much; in fact, it was 
practically intact, only small pieces of concrete 
having been chipped off by our shells. The 
trench itself had been almost obliterated by 
our artillery-fire, and the sides so destroyed 
that it was possible for a tank to cross. The 
emplacements in the Hindenburg line, as else- 
where, were variously used as machine-gun 
posts, observation-posts, trench-mortar posi- 
tions, snipers' posts, etc. The British referred 
to this type of concrete pill-box as a "Mebus." 
It was a matter of considerable difficulty to 
destroy them from above by artillery-fire, and 
even if our gunners made a direct hit with a 
heavy shell it was seldom put out of business. 

About a week before the time I have referred 
to we were informed that two infantry assaults 



i8o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

had come "unstuck" and the parties compos- 
ing them nearly all "scuppered" by reason of 
the heavy and accurate fire coming from a 
double machine-gun concrete emplacement some 
200 feet in front of our most advanced barricade 
in the Hindenburg trench opposite the village of 
Fontaine-les-Croisilles. The artillery had en- 
deavored several times to destroy this position, 
but were not successful. It became necessary 
to remove it. 

The division staff then inquired of our com- 
pany commander as to whether we could do 
anything from below. He thought we could 
and my section was detailed for the job. My 
company commander, Captain Miller, inci- 
dentally one of the finest sportsmen I ever wish 
to meet, was delighted with the opportunity. 

The subsoil here was a hard chalk, and the 
top-soil a sandy clay, the latter averaging from 
seven to ten feet in thickness. It was essential 
to the success of our scheme that we confine our 
underground tunnel to the clay, it being possi- 
ble to excavate in the clay almost without noise, 
while in the chalk below this could not be done. 

Starting from an old dugout entrance we 
constructed a tunnel approximately four by 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 181 

two feet for some distance, and from this point 
to our objective continued a "rabbit-hole" 
three feet by two in size. As we had only an 
average of two feet of clay above our gallery we 
were considerably bothered by our own shells 
landing near, and on one occasion they de- 
stroyed it with an eighteen-pounder. At other 
times we broke through into shell-craters on 
our way over. One night after a heavy rain I 
was on duty in the tunnel when we were pretty 
close to the German pill-box and their crew. 
The earth sloughed away from the top of the 
gallery and exposed the timber of our gallery- 
sets. We blew out the candles at once and 
very carefully placed some muddy sand-bags 
over the exposed portion. Being so near the 
Boche sentries, we were fearful that they would 
have spotted our light, heard our low whisper- 
ing, or even our heavy breathing. 

The next night we struck the concrete of the 
emplacement, and very carefully excavating 
down to the bottom of the clay against the posi- 
tion, we placed a charge of some 500 pounds of 
high explosive, carefully inserted the usual 
detonators and electric leads tamped the gal- 
lery for some 30 feet back in the tunnel, and 



182 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

the next dawn at the "zero" hour fired the 
charge the instant the infantry went over the 
top. 

The resulting explosion very satisfactorily 
disposed of the troublesome "Mebus" and 
largely enabled the 4th King's Liverpool Regi- 
ment to capture some 200 yards of the trenches. 
Some 12 hours later the 2d Argyll and 
Sutherland Highlanders continued the attack 
and captured an additional 300 yards, as far 
forward as the River Sensee (at this time a 
dried-up stream). In addition to a large num- 
ber of Germans killed, they captured many 
wounded and over 60 unwounded prisoners 
that day, the latter caught in the under- 
ground tunnels completely by surprise. Early 
the next morning the Germans attempted a 
counter-attack in force, but the assembly hav- 
ing been observed by the F. O. O.'s, the gunners 
promptly and efficiently broke up the party. 

I noticed the next day that smoke was issuing 
from a number of the tunnel entrances in the 
area captured, and other entrances were badly 
burned. In conversation with one of the 
Scotch officers it developed that the Jocks in- 
vited the Huns to come up out of the dugouts 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 183 

only once with their hands up to surrender. 
If they failed to respond promptly, bombs 
would be thrown down into the tunnels to 
expedite matters. This officer complained that 
he had posted sentries to guard the prisoners 
at each dugout entrance, but that as soon as 
his back was turned some trouble would occur, 
which necessitated more bombing practice on 
the part of the Scotch sentry. This was only 
a small affair, a battalion stunt. Everywhere 
along this front each day some attacks would 
take place, perhaps a regimental or brigade 
attack, or at other times just a small company 
raid. 

For a day or two after this attack our trenches 
here were filled with the bodies of Germans and 
British. H. E. and bombs are terrible things. 

It's all too big for words ! I can only de- 
scribe some of the incidents I saw or was con- 
nected with. These are typical of what was 
constantly occurring, and this was happening 
everywhere in our vicinity. The bodies and 
even uniforms were almost torn to pieces. 
Below in the dugouts were the German dead 
and wounded, the dead in every conceivable 
position, lying sprawled across the steps of the 



i8 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

dugout entrances, half hanging from the dug- 
out bunks, or on the floors of the tunnel. The 
wounded had been given first-aid treatment, 
and our soldiers were giving them a share of 
their rations and cigarettes. Some of our men 
were searching around for German souvenirs, 
the invariable practice after the first excite- 
ment of an attack is over. I tried to talk to 
some wounded Germans, but couldn't get very 
far with the conversation, then left them some 
cigarettes and passed on. We found many 
things of value. The Boches had set up an 
electrical listening-instrument in the chalk 
from the tunnel below, but had apparently, 
unfortunately for themselves, neglected to listen 
to our underground work in the clay above. 

Attacks were made almost daily on this 
front. A week or so before the attack just 
described, a party of the Leicester Regiment 
had suffered badly. A party of some 200 
wounded infantry, including, I believe, some 
other units, had been captured by the Huns 
and placed for the time being in a German 
barbed-wire prisoners' cage in the village of 
Fontaine-les-Croisilles. This village was a pop- 
ular target with our artillery, and soon after 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 185 

these British soldiers had been placed in the 
cage it was shelled badly by the English gunners. 

The account comes from a wounded corporal 
whom we helped to haul in over the parapet 
one night. He stated that during the bom- 
bardment the Hun sentries bolted and all these 
prisoners who could walk or crawl escaped, 
a few of them, including himself, managing to 
reach No Man's Land and at night our own 
trenches. Although a prisoner for only a short 
time, his account of the treatment accorded 
them confirms all of the stories of the brutality 
inherent in the German race. No treatment 
was given to the wounded, not even first-aid. 
No water or food of any kind was allowed 
them, and whenever a German guard noticed a 
prisoner looking up or around, he was struck 
over the head. 

The same night a sergeant of the same battal- 
ion crawled back over our parapet after hav- 
ing spent four days in No Man's Land with a 
broken arm. The poor chap had been bombed, 
and sniped at as he crawled painfully back, 
and machine-guns all along the line had opened 
fire on him. No one was to blame; all sentries 
have explicit instructions to fire at anything 



1 86 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

moving in No Man's Land. It was a marvel 
he even reached our parapet, but he told us 
there were other poor fellows out there still 
alive. Rescue-parties were instantly organized 
and brought in all the poor chaps they could 
find. 

One of our own tanks had broken down in 
a previous attack and was now lying in a shal- 
low sunken road about twenty yards from our 
most advanced position. The caterpillar tread 
of this machine had broken, and it was then 
occupied by an infantry detail, the former 
tank crew having gone back to man another 
tank. From this machine we could get good 
observation of the enemy trenches. To get to 
it in daytime we had to double across the road 
and get inside in a hurry. 

It is an unfortunate fact that many of our 
men were wounded from our own shelling 
in these Hindenburg trenches. When a pro- 
gramme "strafe" by our heavy guns and howit- 
zers was planned on the nearest enemy trenches, 
it was the practice to withdraw the infantry 
and engineer parties who were on duty or work- 
ing in our most advanced trenches. With the 
ever-increasing destructive radius of our heavy 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 187 

H. E. shells it was impossible to avoid a certain 
percentage of casualties of this nature. Occa- 
sionally also other shells would burst short. I 
was standing by the side of a sentry one day 
when his arm was broken by a shell fragment, 
and every one can record instances of close 
shaves from them. 

With the bulk of the German troops opposite 
us in deep dugouts most of their time, it was 
an increasing problem with the gunners to 
secure targets. I was observing one day with 
an F. 0. O. when we spotted a couple of Boches 
running across from one trench to another. 
He promptly called to his telephonist to order 

three guns of Battery No. (three-inch) 

to open fire on them. At the same time he 
remarked: "We're doing lots of sniping with 
our eighteen-pounders these days." 

One day about this time I was walking back 
to the village of Henin with my section com- 
mander when a staff limousine pulled up on 
the road and a staff captain and half a dozen 
correspondents stepped out. The staff cap- 
tain inquired as to whether there were any of 
the new heavy howitzer batteries near us and, 
if so, could we recommend them as being rea- 



188 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

sonably safe. The correspondents wished to see 
some in action. As it happened, there was a 
9.2-inch battery quite close and we introduced 
these gentlemen to the gunner major in charge 
of the battery. Mr. Hilaire Belloc was pointed 
out to me as one of the party. I understand 
the latter gentleman walked on to the first 
Hindenburg line shortly after. 

Our main company camp at this time was 
at Boisleau-St.-Mare, some three to four miles 
back. We could usually figure here on being 
out of the war, as we expressed it. Never- 
theless, one day when we were at lunch in one 
of the Nissen huts, of corrugated-iron con- 
struction, the Huns were shelling an observa- 
tion-balloon near us. Numerous fragments 
struck the hut. Some of us decided to lunch 
in our tin hats. One of the mess-waiters was 
severely wounded in the head at the same time. 
The shelling of camps at this distance was 
rather exceptional, though, and only occurred 
at intervals. 

My furlough coming due toward the end of 
May, I applied to the brigade commander for 
leave to visit Paris. The request was not 
granted, apparently on account of the fact 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 189 

that too many officers were applying. Instead 
of going to Paris, I crossed over to London for 
the ten days' "permission/' 

Whilst in London and some two days before 
I left to return to the trenches in France, 
General Pershing and his staff arrived in Liver- 
pool and came on down to London. Since our 
declaration of war I had been trying very per- 
sistently to transfer to our own army, but had 
not had much success. General Pershing and 
his officers were stopping at the Savoy Hotel. 
I immediately called on some of the engineer 
officers, being delighted to see and talk to some 
real American men again after such a long time. 
The officers were much interested and did their 
best to straighten matters out so that I could 
be at once transferred. Unfortunately, there 
was some red tape to unentangle, and finally 
I was advised to hand in my written resigna- 
tion as a British officer and ask the British 
authorities to accept it on the grounds that I 
wished to join my own army, and thought my 
experience would be of value in training our 
men. Accordingly I mailed my resignation 
from London to my commanding officer and 
returned to the trenches. 



i 9 o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

On my return to the Cambrai sector I found 
my section were engaged in salvaging enemy 
timber and other material from the old Ger- 
man lines near us. After a short time at this 
work I was ordered to take command of an- 
other of our company sections who were at 
that time building new dugouts near the Hin- 
denburg trenches close to Bullecourt. There 
had been a recent mining alarm there, but our 
fellows had, as I was informed, satisfactorily 
disposed of it. In the course of a few days I 
received a "chit" (note) from the brigade 
major of the infantry occupying the sector, 
stating that "suspicious noises believed to 
be enemy mining" had been reported from 
a Lewis-gun party who were occupying a 
"Mebus" (old German pill-box) at the end of 
Lump Lane, the latter a forward trench which 
served as a communication between two firing- 
trenches. Accompanied by an experienced 
miner I visited the "Mebus" and we both 
listened for some time. We heard the enemy 
working, but could get nothing satisfactory 
from this spot. A short distance from the 
"Mebus" in No Man's Land we found an old 
dugout entrance which had been half filled 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 191 

in with loose earth. We carefully crawled 
down this and listened. Very soon we heard 
the Germans talking and walking past in the 
gallery below us, going past us and in the di- 
rection of the "Mebus." One man would go 
down while the other remained on top in order 
to cover against surprise. Every time we 
moved whilst listening in this entrance a shower 
of dirt would slip and run down the sides of 
the gallery, making considerable noise. This 
was not pleasant, as we expected the Huns 
to hear it. We reported the situation to the 
infantry and advised their withdrawing their 
post from the end of Lump Lane. In addition 
to the Lewis-gun post there was a bombers' 
post of four to six men within twenty yards 
of the former. The infantry company com- 
mander was very loath to act on our advice, 
particularly as the "Mebus" was an admirable 
observation-post. 

The next day the divisional commander 
visited this sector of his front and, hearing of 
the suspected mining, ordered me to report to 
him. At the battalion dugout I repeated to 
him the advice I had given the company com- 
mander, with the result that he promptly in- 



192 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

structed the latter officer to withdraw the posts 
referred to. 

In order to play safe, we at once started to 
counter-mine from trenches a little farther 
back. A few days later the Huns fired a mine 
almost directly under the "Mebus." The in- 
fantry occupying the former post would most 
certainly have been all killed. 

It was quite evident that, although the 
trenches above had been captured from the 
Boche, below ground the old tunnels had not 
been destroyed at this place. Usually, as the 
Huns retired in the Hindenburg line, they de- 
stroyed the galleries below as well as barri- 
cading the trenches on top. 

Our work in the Hindenburg trenches was 
most interesting. Relics of the former in- 
habitants were around everywhere, buried 
or half buried in the trench above and lying 
around in the galleries below. Uniforms, 
equipment, bombs, ammunition, even black 
bread and sausage, cigars, beer, and numerous 
other things were found. The work of clean- 
ing them out was a big task. All dugouts have 
a peculiar "fug" of their own, but these Ger- 
man dugouts were particularly unpleasant. 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 193 

The work of repairing the tunnels and rebuild- 
ing these parts which they had destroyed was 
given to us. Most of my company were split 
into small parties, and our work extended for 
several miles along this front. Some six or 
eight of our men would be detailed to dugouts 
or other work, and each of these parties would 
have usually from fifteen to twenty infantry- 
men to assist them. 

At this time the Australians were having 
some very heavy fighting at Bullecourt. The 
enemy had made over twelve counter-attacks 
in attempting to recover the positions lost. 
The roads through Croisilles and up to the 
trenches were badly shelled. The alertness of 
the military police stationed at crossroads cer- 
tainly saved many casualties. The familiar 
"shelling up the road, sir," often prevented 
our running into bad spots. We would wait 
for a short while and then go on. 

Our men, instead of marching up the roads 
in artillery formation, would in the daytime 
hike across the fields in groups of two or three, 
usually trying to avoid battery positions. This 
undoubtedly reduced our casualties. We gave 
them always a contract task to do, such as 



i 9 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

placing three or four sets of timber, excavating 
the necessary dirt and camouflaging the latter. 
After long experience we found this method 
the most satisfactory. When their work had 
been passed by the shift non-com., they could 
go out to their camp. These section camps 
were approximately from a mile to a mile and 
a half back of the trenches. For a time whilst 
in the Bullecourt trenches we occupied dug- 
outs in a chalk quarry in the support-line. 
When things were fairly quiet we would ride 
right up to this point on our motorcycles. 
These chalk dugouts were also the regimental 
headquarters and first-aid post. In a cubby- 
hole opposite ours in these quarters I met one 
of the most genial M. O/s (medical officers) 
I ever knew. His good humor was infectious 
and his light, cheery badinage to his patients 
of the utmost value. On the 18th of July, 
after having been up on our two days' shift, 
I said good-by to this officer, thinking I would 
be back again in another forty-eight hours. 
On my arrival at the section-camp I was greeted 
with the news that my resignation had been 
accepted and that my name had appeared in 
the official paper, the London Gazette with the 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 195 

following announcement: "Temp. Lieut. H. D. 
Trounce relinquished his commission and is 
granted the honorary rank of second lieut., 
Royal Engineers — July 15th." 

I had been serving in the trenches as a civilian 
since the 15th of July. As a matter of fact, I 
left the quarry at the right time. On July 19th 
the Huns were shelling them with 250-mm. 
shells. Most of them burst on top, each 
making craters about 30 feet wide and about 
15 feet deep, though one with a defective fuse 
did not burst, but penetrated through some 18 
feet of hard chalk to our dugouts and buried 
itself 15 feet below the floor about 10 feet away 
from our bunk. Fortunately it did not burst 
there, though 4 or 5 men were killed by the 
timber it smashed as it came through. The 
total penetration was over 40 feet. 

Conclusion 

My experience has been in no way unique; 
thousands of other men have gone through 
and are now experiencing much greater risks 
and hardships than any I have so far encoun- 
tered. Fortunate men like myself live to write 



196 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

or talk of them, but in doing so feel almost 
contemptible to themselves when they compare 
their lot with those of the men who have given 
their lives and their all in the great sacrifice 
for the cause of humanity. However, we have 
taken our chance and now we are only too 
glad of an opportunity to tell of the bravery 
and cheerfulness of our comrades in the 
trenches. In my account I have related a 
number of characteristic incidents which came 
within my own observation, or which hap- 
pened on our small front. Thousands of such 
incidents are happening every day all along 
the line and are a part of the every-day life. 

On my return to the United States I re- 
turned to California for a short vacation and 
the rest I badly needed. In October, 1917, I 
received a commission as a captain in the En- 
gineer Reserve Corps, and reported again for 
duty, and I now am expecting that I will be 
shortly ordered overseas again. 

When I return this time it will not be for 
love of adventure, curiosity, or any such reason, 
only the same sense of duty which impels most 
of us to the task. Although there is un- 
doubtedly a certain fascination which admits 



THE HINDENBURG LINE 197 

of no reasonable explanation in living in and 
going up to the trenches, I have never yet 
met a man who has spent a long period there 
who can truthfully tell me he really likes it. 

Our great army is still new to us, but, never- 
theless, I believe it is the duty of every person 
with a fair sense of justice, to learn to distin- 
guish between the various aims of the service. 
The infantryman is the man who undergoes 
most of the dangers and risks, the real fighting 
man, and the man too who experiences the 
greatest hardships and discomforts. Find out 
if you can where a man has served, whether it 
was in the trenches or in a more or less com- 
fortable billet in a village far from the lines 
and appreciate him accordingly. When suc- 
cessful actions occur in which the infantry, as 
usual, are the main heroes, don't forget the 
work of the engineer which made much of the 
success possible. A lady said to me recently: 
"Why, the engineers are in no danger, they 
don't go into the trenches, do they ? " I hope 
that my account of an engineer's life at the 
front will do something to dismiss such ideas. 

Every man and woman who plays his or 
her full part in this great struggle is justly ac- 



i 9 8 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

corded honor, and the greater the sacrifice the 
greater the honor. 

I would not depreciate for a minute the value 
to the country of those men in the rear of the 
lines who are a necessary and vital part of the 
machinery of war, but I am jealous for the 
men who suffer most and endure almost un- 
bearable hardships in the real trenches. 

No officer who has served in this campaign 
has anything but the most unstinted praise 
for the men in the ranks — the real workers 
and the real fighting men. Many of us have 
felt at times that we were hardly fit to even 
tie their shoe-laces, such examples of cheer- 
fulness and courage did they set us, and such 
inspiration did they afford us with their never- 
tiring devotion. Thoughts of this nature oc- 
curred to me last year when we buried one of 
our own lads just behind the lines, and paid 
him the last and only salute that an enlisted 
man receives. But his memory will never die ! 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR 

FROM a prolonged and varied experi- 
ence under shell-fire, machine-gun, rifle, 
trench-mortar fire, etc., and from an 
intimate and close association with men of all 
kinds in times of deadly peril, it seems evident 
to me that personal courage is very largely a 
matter of physical condition and general health, 
and that, provided a man be healthy and his 
nerves in good condition, it is natural for him 
to be brave. 

In the case of a man of liberal education, 
used to the refinements of life, imagination is 
an important factor of personal bravery, and 
I think it would not be incorrect to say that 
sixty per cent of his courage is dependent upon 
the possession of good health, and the remaining 
forty per cent representing strong control of 
will and nerves. 

He who is less educated, less sensitive, or 
whose nerves are less highly strung, relies to 
199 



200 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

a greater extent on his physical condition, and 
the element of imagination is naturally less, 
representing, one might say, for purposes of 
comparison, eighty per cent physical condition 
and twenty per cent mental. The imagination 
of such a one, as a rule, does not carry him to 
the same lengths as does that of an educated 
man, and his envisage, as it might be termed, 
is only concerned with the actual events happen- 
ing in the immediate vicinity, while his mind 
quite philosophically reviews, or more often 
fails to consider, the possible dangers ahead 
of him. The mind of the man of intelligence 
is so much more active, sees so much further, 
and his observation and experience so plainly 
tell him certain possible and eventual conse- 
quences, that it is only by the exercise of very 
strong will-power that he succeeds in subduing 
the apprehensions into which his superior men- 
tality carries him and in rising above them. 

As a matter of actual fact, every one, edu- 
cated and uneducated alike in different degree, 
experiences some distressing reflections on the 
eve of an attack, especially of an infantry 
attack. For the ten or fifteen minutes imme- 
diately preceding the "zero" hour, as it is 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR 201 

called, or the second in which the men go 
"over the top" they usually have some leisure 
moments in which they are bound to reflect 
upon a possibly disastrous outcome. This 
period is particularly trying, but the average 
man is much more afraid of being thought 
afraid by his comrades than he is of the danger 
itself, and this feeling is necessarily greater in 
the minds of the more imaginative. Once he 
is started in the actual forward movement and 
has work to do, his mind is occupied nearly 
always to the complete exclusion of everything 
but the matter in hand; the excitement drives 
the emotion of natural fear from his mind; only 
in the lulls in the action is he conscious of any 
unpleasant moments, and it is just for such 
moments as these that our strenuous military 
training is largely intended. Weak men fail 
under the strain, and disasters ensue. But the 
long hours of drill and training have so instilled 
habits of self-control and obedience that this, 
combined with the inherent strong characters of 
men, the necessities of the moment, and their 
desire and determination to do their best, en- 
able them to rise to heights never experienced 
at times less critical. 



202 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

The above remarks refer to the sensations 
of the soldier about to enter upon an attack; 
every-day trench warfare is rather different. 
During quiet intervals, when the enemy are 
not raining missiles in his immediate vicinity, 
only his subconscious mind asserts itself, and 
the nervous strain, although existent, does not 
usually evidence itself in any outward form. 
However, when troops are being shelled badly, 
or, I should say, being "strafed," a worried 
and reflective look can be seen in the eyes of 
most men, which is usually accompanied by 
perspiration as a physical sign. Trench war- 
fare has been very accurately defined as 
"months of intense boredom punctuated by 
moments of intense funk." This expression 
seems to cover the experience fairly well. 

As a general thing, it is true that occupation 
of some kind which involves mental effort is 
nearly always effective in banishing thoughts 
of fear, and in times of extreme danger the 
most courageous of acts are performed when 
one is so absorbed in the endeavor to accom- 
plish the purpose desired that the slightest 
thought is not given to the possibility of death, 
wounds, or sacrifice; and it is due to this 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR 203 

absolute self-effacement that the most heroic 
deeds are done. 

The unknown always presents the most 
fearsome aspect. A known and experienced 
danger invariably results in a much-increased 
confidence in one's will and powers of self- 
control. 

The attitude of men in trench warfare is an 
illustration. For the first week or two they are 
"jumpy" and take very good care not to expose 
themselves needlessly; their imagination runs 
away with them to some extent, and they 
conjure up in their minds visions of themselves 
wounded, maimed, or even blown to pieces. 
Especially do these mind-pictures rise when they 
are alone in dangerous places. I remember 
that soon after I first went into the trenches, 
and, walking by myself at night (when it seems 
somehow that all dangers are accentuated) over 
a stretch of flat ground where no cover or 
shelter existed, and where, nightly, the enemy 
would pour a hail of machine-gun bullets over 
us. I remember well the very unpleasant sen- 
sations which raced through my mind, and of 
its dwelling particularly on the chance of my 
being hit and of being left badly wounded there 



2o 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

on the ground for hours unnoticed, or until 
daylight came. I do not doubt but that my 
mind, like others, was naturally influenced by 
some of the terrible things we had seen. One 
of the first sights that I happened upon in the 
very place to which I have just referred was 
a poor chap, a fellow engineer officer, who had 
been caught by a machine-gun fire, and who 
was lying dead in the path. How long he had 
been lying there I do not know. 

Men are not usually alone in the front-line 
trenches, day or night, but occasionally this 
happens. I can recall very distinctly, in going 
my rounds visiting the different mine-shafts 
alone at night, of wondering, as I walked from 
fire-bay to fire-bay, separated by earth traverses 
or blocks, as to whether, as I cautiously made 
my way around, I would suddenly stumble on 
some Boche stealthily prowling there in the 
bay ahead or whether one would catch me from 
behind in the dark as I passed along. I was 
ready for them at any time, always carrying a 
couple of small bombs in my blouse pocket, 
but it's an eerie feeling that one has when 
patrolling sectors which are very close and 
often raided by the enemy at night. After 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR 205 

many such experiences as these, men begin to 
form those habits of self-control which must 
characterize a good soldier. 

But "revenons a nos moutons," as our 
French comrades say. After the first two or 
three weeks the average man acquires more 
confidence, and at this time the officers of his 
unit have to be especially careful in warning 
him against needless exposure. Then it is 
that he gets reckless, looks over the parapet 
every now and then, and in other ways shows an 
overconfidence which always results in an in- 
crease in the casualty lists. 

A few months pass — a short time in an ordi- 
nary life, but a time so crowded with different 
sensations to the man in the trenches that it 
seems an eternity — he develops into a seasoned 
and confident soldier, and, while showing at 
all necessary times the strength and courage 
of the real fighting man in not fearing to make 
or face any attack, he meanwhile sensibly takes 
advantage of all possible cover available in the 
hope that he may not become a casualty be- 
fore he has been of some real service to his 
country. 

It is, of course, my conviction that, man for 



206 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

man, we are more than a match for our enemy; 
and when hand-to-hand fighting occurs, we 
can always rely on our fellows smashing the 
Hun. It is inspiring to me to see the confidence 
with which our new soldiers take their training: 
at first diffident, and later growing in confidence 
and assurance as they realize their ability to 
take care of themselves and punish the enemy. 
It has been my privilege to lecture to engineer 
officers and men, and I have felt to a marked 
degree the enthusiasm and conviction of su- 
periority which is in the soul of every fighting 
man at our big camps. 

What real man could fail to feel the grip of 
this war? Who would hesitate to show in a 
practical way the thoughts and ideals for which 
America stands ? For is not every one called 
upon to do his share for humanity and freedom ? 



CHAPTER XIV 
SOM£ PRINCIPLES OF MINING? 

MINING is art effective weapon, but 
it must be applied to suitable ob- 
jectives, and its use restricted by 
certain rules which have been deduced from 
experience. 

As regards the actual processes, the only im- 
portant changes to be anticipated are the de- 
velopment of the use of rapid tools and of high 
explosives. 

The most vulnerable points in trench-mine 
warfare are the following: Listening and 
observation posts in advance of the line; ma- 
chine-gun and trench-mortar positions; junc- 
tion-points of communicating-trenches with 
front line. 

Mines were employed to attack, and counter- 
mines to defend, many besieged cities in the 
past, but the application of mining methods 
in trench warfare has at no time or place 
reached the scientific development which ob- 
x>7 



208 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

tains in the present war, though our own Civil 
War furnishes several examples of its use in 
connection with the trench fighting of those 
days, viz.: Petersburg, Va., and other locali- 
ties. 

The situation of the western front is briefly 
as follows: Some thousands of mines have been 
blown by the Germans, British, and French, 
many of them with very large charges. The 
British and French were mostly engaged in 
defensive operations during 191 5 and a por- 
tion of 1916, but since that date the applica- 
tion of mining methods by the Allies has been 
mostly on the offensive. Wherever opposing 
trenches are close together, mining warfare 
has almost invariably ensued. Mining fluctu- 
ates from time to time, and in 191 5 and 1916 
was most active on this front. It is always a 
possibility to be reckoned with, although the 
element of surprise, the most important factor 
in offensive mining operations, has now been 
largely discounted. On the other hand, the 
field of mining activity has been enlarged and 
is constantly changing. The destruction of 
enemy strong points is now an important prob- 
lem for mining engineers. The use of mines 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 209 

in destroying roads and shelters also, in what 
might be described as the half-open warfare 
which has been so common this year, and in 
strategical retreats, is of increasing impor- 
tance. The necessity of training engineer- 
pioneer units is important, as in the absence 
of special mining troops, this work may fall 
to their lot, particularly in the case of defen- 
sive operations in order to protect the infan- 
try. 

On account of the large number of men, 
quantity of material, expense, etc., the use of 
mining operations is very carefully considered 
beforehand, and careful plans devised before 
starting on any underground operations. At- 
tacks are sometimes undertaken only to de- 
molish a portion of the hostile trenches, in view 
of a local operation. At other times they 
form a part of a large offensive movement. 
Generally speaking, speed and silence are the 
first requisites. If these can be obtained 
with any degree of certainty, mining operations 
are nearly always successful. In the under- 
ground struggle in this war, the forces with 
superior personnel, material, and explosives 
at their disposal are bound to win, this is a 



2i8 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

fact proven by actual experience. The object 
tives will be usually such points as cannot be 
destroyed by artillery^fire, areas organized 
with deep dugouts and strong points which 
form valuable objectives, etc. 

Almost everywhere on the western front the 
enemy are intrenched in deep, well-constructed 
trenches, and in nearly every area these trenches 
are further fortified by numerous deep dugouts 
and underground galleries, in most cases close- 
timbered with four-inch oak and other hard 
woods. The German mine systems are also 
almost invariably close-timbered. 

In the same way as the general principles 
of tactics in open warfare agree with those of 
trench warfare, they are guided by the same 
logical reasoning. Many considerations must 
be studied before adopting any plan of offense. 

With regard to depth below the surface, the 
miner must be guided by the elevation of his 
objective and by the nature of the strata 
through which he will have to work. In most 
operations the water-level is an important factor 
in considering depth. 

It must be always borne in mind that mining 
is not an independent service, but is employed 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 211 

in connection with the other arms of the 
service. 

Underground activity, either offensive or 
defensive, is first observed from those points 
in our lines nearest the enemy. All enemy 
trenches facing salients of our lines will be the 
object of particular attention and closest daily 
observation. This observation of the first- 
line and support-line trenches should disclose 
the presence of enemy underground works and 
their approximate location. For their definite 
location, the most careful listening under- 
ground must be done. 

Aeroplane pictures are a source of much 
valuable information if studied very carefully. 
Aeroplane photographs covering several weeks, 
and if possible several months, are procured 
from the nearest squadron of the air service. 
The use of a strong magnifying glass will prob- 
ably discover chalk mounds where fresh heaps 
are, by comparison with previous aeroplane 
photographs, shown to be growing in size; 
and other features or changes which will 
afford useful information on careful study. 
Particular attention is paid to new trenches in 
the enemy's lines. In fact, any change from 



212 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

week to week in these aeroplane photographs 
is carefully accounted for. If further pictures 
are desired, particularly just after craters have 
been blown by the enemy or ourselves, they 
are furnished by the air service. The enemy's 
lines are studied from day to day with field- 
glasses. Perhaps the accumulation of sand- 
bags different in color to the others will be 
noticed, or freshly placed earth, white and 
less dull in color than that of the parapets, 
which have been washed by the rain and black- 
ened by explosives. As a matter of fact, in 
mining operations in Flanders, where blue 
clay was encountered, the bags containing the 
clay (different in color to surface clay) were 
so distributed along the front-line trenches or 
breastworks on both the enemy and British 
trenches that it was a matter of considerable 
difficulty to obtain much information from 
this source. It was, of course, common knowl- 
edge that both sides were engaged in mining 
and fairly accurate information as to position 
of enemy galleries was deduced, but the actual 
location of enemy mine-shafts was very dif- 
ficult to determine, as quite a number of mine- 
shafts emanate from dugouts and are con- 
nected up with others. 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 213 

Listening reports give a fair idea of where 
the enemy's galleries are, and plans are made 
up showing the suspected location of enemy 
galleries or mine system. These plans are 
developed in accordance with the evidence 
furnished. Careful observation may show 
that a number of men come up the communi- 
cation-trenches regularly to certain spots and 
there disappear from view. One may notice 
carrying parties coming up with timber, by 
catching sight of the timber above the trench. 
Infantry listening patrols, who have been lis- 
tening in "No Man's Land" at night may 
have heard the sound of machinery or venti- 
lators at work, or some other sounds which 
go to prove the existence of enemy mining, or 
the location of mine-shafts, etc. It is impor- 
tant to listen in "No Man's Land" at night, 
in order to obtain definite information or con- 
firm the reports from infantry. 

Sufficient evidence being obtained as to 
probable location of enemy mine-shafts, or 
dugout entrances, etc., there is difficulty in 
having these places "strafed" by our own 
trench-mortars and artillery. 

In the desire to obtain evidence of the enemy's 
activity underground, the proper camouflage 



2i 4 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

of one's own spoil-heaps and entrances can- 
not be neglected. 

It is essential to have a scheme of attack. 
Numerous attacks have failed on account of 
there being no clearly thought-out plan. A 
common mistake has been failure to anticipate 
possible countermining by the enemy, and to 
commence the attack without guarding against 
it. 

Study of the objective and the ground will 
therefore furnish the information necessary to 
settle the essential elements of the scheme. 

The attacks must be arranged so as to reach 
the objective in spite of anything the enemy 
may do. The vulnerable parts are the flanks; 
that is, both the flanks of galleries or branch 
galleries which are first constructed, and also 
the flanks of the combined scheme. 

Usually it is of no advantage to begin an 
offensive by mining if the enemy has covered 
his position with countermines; if the distance 
to be covered is more than 150 yards; or if the 
water-level is very shallow. 

There should be more galleries than the 
actual number needed to reach the objective. 

They should be placed close enough to each 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 215 

other to insure enemy operations being de- 
tected from either parallel gallery. 

If the enemy tries to bar the way by counter- 
mining, a breach must be made in his system, 
so that, in spite of him, the galleries may be 
driven to their objectives and charges placed 
as previously arranged. 

The underground struggle which ensues must 
aim at clearing the ground by destroying the 
enemy's galleries, and at holding him to one 
part of the front whilst the attack passes else- 
where (to one side, above or below) by working 
quicker. 

In order to do this successfully, it is neces- 
sary to get ahead of the enemy and strike be- 
fore he can do so, to go for the flanks of the 
enemy's galleries, to strike as hard as possible, 
and to strike only when within good range. 

To insure this it is required to have an accu- 
rate plan of the mines, a well-organized system 
of information, and decision and rapidity in 
execution. The value of a blow on the enemy's 
flank by placing the charges at the sides of 
branches or galleries will be enhanced. 

In meeting the enemy underground, maxi- 
mum-charge camouflets are largely employed. 



216 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

These will naturally vary with the depths at 
which they are placed. 

To strike within good range requires great 
coolness. Every explosion causes a temporary 
delay in the attack, because it will damage 
part of the gallery leading to the charge. A 
mine should be fired only when it is considered 
that it is likely to do more damage to the enemy 
than to ourselves. 



Allied 
trench 



German 
trench 




Offensive ga//e 



-59^0 



FIG. A 



The preceding sketch illustrates a plan 
adopted by the French which may be used 
in suitable soil for the offensive. This pro- 
cedure often gives good results in deceiving 
the enemy. He thinks he is protecting him- 
self. The defensive gallery starts from the 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 217 

front line and the offensive from the support. 
Both galleries are in the same vertical plane, the 
second being more advanced in the direction 
of the enemy. In the top galleries very little 
attempt is made to deaden the noise, while 
work below is carried on silently. An enemy 
listener easily confuses one with the other, 
and the offensive gallery passes under him. 
Distances D and D 1 are the same. The miner 
M confuses the two sounds, and the offensive 
gallery passes under him. 

(Note : In many of the districts in France, 
where a sandy clay forms the top-soil and a 
hard chalk the subsoil, this method could 
only be adopted with difficulty, as the conditions 
are reversed. The top gallery being in clay, it 
would be comparatively easy to do noiseless 
work there, but* extremely difficult to carry 
on the lower chalk gallery without noise.) 

Referring to sketch C, direct attack may be 
made in this manner, or this method might be 
used as a feint, while the enemy is driven around 
behind the gallery at another point. 

The usual measures of precaution employed 
in ordinary warfare above ground must be 
taken below ground whenever the distance of 



218 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

the enemy and the nature of the soil do not ex- 
clude all possibility of a mining attack. 

It is essential to have: An efficient lookout 
and listening service (observation of enemy's 
work above ground, and listening-posts above 
and below); Means of defense underground — 
countermines. 

The most reliable information will be ob- 
tained by underground listening with portable 
listening-instruments, such as the geophone, 
etc. Much confirmatory evidence is obtained 
by listening patrols at night in "No Man's 
Land" and by a careful survey of enemy 
trenches. 

Several different arrangements can be 
adopted. The fan-shaped arrangement as 
shown in Fig. B, or the arrangement of inde- 
pendent parallel galleries (Fig. C). The second 
arrangement is preferable. The interval be- 
tween galleries varies with range of listening in 
different soils. In clay, the distances between 
galleries should not be greater than 60 feet. 
In chalk this may be safely doubled. Listen- 
ing-galleries are usually put out in Y-form, 
and these galleries are of smaller size, often 3 
feet by 2 feet in cross-section. If desired, 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 219 

holes may be bored from the ends of these 
listening-galleries and geophones placed in 
them. Where time, material, and personnel 
permit, the mine-shaft is put in at the support- 
line instead of from the front line. This can 
only be done, however, when the situation al- 
lows of it. The galleries in Flanders seldom 
reach a greater depth than 25 feet to 30 feet, 
but in the districts farther south, in the chalk 
country, mining operations are conducted at 
any depth from 80 to 150 feet. A compre- 
hensive German mine system was found in the 
Somme district at 200 feet. Naturally, it is a 
distinct advantage to get one's own defensive 
system in first and then sit tight and listen for 
enemy work. 

The best defensive is often a strong offensive. 
A concrete instance of this is furnished by the 
experience of a British mining company who 
were ordered from Flanders to trenches in the 
chalk district at the Vimy Ridge to meet what 
was termed "an urgent situation" underground. 
The Germans were mining from chalk galleries 
at depths varying from 60 to 100 feet, and in- 
flicting heavy casualties on the infantry occupy- 
ing the British trenches by blowing large mines 



22o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

under their advanced positions. As a result 
the infantry were obliged to abandon many of 
these forward positions. The hard chalk sub- 
soil of this district was covered with a sandy 
clay top-soil varying in thickness on this sector 
from I to 30 feet i«n depth. Some defensive 
galleries in the chalk had been started by the 
French miners when occupying these trenches. 
The British at once undertook the construction 
of numerous galleries in the clay top-soil. Their 
rate of progress was much faster in clay than 
that of their opponents in chalk, in addition 
to which they could proceed without noise. 
The programme was daring but entirely suc- 
cessful. The enemy continued to handicap 
their efforts at the outset by blowing often, 
but within some six weeks the British had suc- 
ceeded in completely establishing their mastery 
underground. A few camouflets were blown 
by them in crossing "No Man's Land," but the 
majority of their mines were fired directly be- 
low the enemy's first line, and in some cases 
beyond. So intense was the fighting that on 
some occasions the British blew as many as 
four mines a night on a 500-yard front. 
The question of the blowing and occupation 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 221 

of craters is usually determined in consultation 
with the infantry staff. Some occasions occur, 
as, for instance, when the enemy is met below 
ground, when it is necessary to fire charges 
which will form craters; but, as a rule, no 
craters are blown in "No Man's Land" until 
the infantry have been warned and plans made 
for their occupation or otherwise. 

Camouflets are employed to a large extent 
to destroy enemy galleries when they are met 
below ground. The infantry officers occupying 
the trenches are always informed of an im- 
pending "blow" from the enemy, and dis- 
positions are made to withdraw any troops 
occupying dangerous positions, such as out- 
lying bombers' posts or automatic-rifle de- 
tachments, etc. 

All ranks in the mining companies are warned 
not to create an alarm among the infantry 
occupying the trenches when enemy "blows" 
are anticipated. Mining officers, at their dis- 
cretion, advise the infantry of the state of af- 
fairs when there is very active fighting un- 
derground and there is danger of casualties 
among the infantry from enemy "blows." 
Only in the latter event is it wise to inform them. 



222 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 




Y UndfergroCrnd /ivorAsY 



w 




FI6.C 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 223 

Under ordinary circumstances, no information 
should be given. Considerable success in warn- 
ing infantry of impending mines by the enemy 
has been reached by the British and French 
miners. They often estimate the time of enemy 
mines being blown to within a few hours. On 
the other hand, the enemy often prepare charges 
and hold them for long periods before firing. 

It is most important to ascertain, by under- 
ground listening, the nature of the work done. 
Determination of the nature of the sounds in 
listening is of equal importance to their location. 

The practice of blowing craters on every occa- 
sion in "No Man's Land" is discouraged, gen- 
erally on account of the fact that it will prove 
an obstacle in the assault when the next in- 
fantry attack takes place. 

Many craters are blown for tactical reasons, 
such as the obtaining of good observation-posts 
and, in other cases, to obtain enfilade fire from 
the rim of the craters blown. Previous to 
blowing these craters, plans will have been 
made with the infantry to consolidate them as 
soon as blown. The exact diameter of the 
crater will have been calculated and the posi- 
tion located in "No Man's Land," and a trench 



224 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

constructed, probably the previous night, which 
will intersect the rim of the proposed crater. 
As soon as the mine is blown, the infantry will 
consolidate their positions on the rims of the 
craters. Many craters are used to good ad- 
vantage in the disposal of spoil from near-by 
mine-shafts. Considerable difficulty is found 
in obtaining new places in which to dump the 
spoil, especially on active mining sectors. 

Many devices are employed to deceive the 
enemy when firing. Dummy picks are often 
suspended in the face of the gallery and oper- 
ated regularly to imitate picking, etc. Other 
sounds indicating progress of ordinary work 
may be simulated in the gallery being charged, 
or perhaps rather noisy work going on in an 
adjacent tunnel. A little ingenuity here is 
advisable. Quite a large number of mines are 
fired at "stand-to" at dawn or dusk, average 
time, 4 a. m. or 7 P. m., depending on the 
time of year. Naturally, it is not wise to 
make these times regular. The "stand-to" 
times are common because of the fact that the 
enemy infantry also occupies his fire steps at 
these times. Care must be taken to withdraw 
troops occupying dangerous positions. 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 225 

In the event of blowing a series of mines 
under the enemy trenches, plans are devised 
with the infantry in an endeavor to induce 
the enemy to occupy his threatened trenches in 
force. This may be effected by a "false" in- 
fantry attack, and other means. 

The mine is an irresistible means of launch- 
ing an attack. In a mined sector, the best 
troops completely lose their bearings for several 
seconds after an explosion. These several 
seconds prevent the machine-guns from firing, 
and the assailant gains a foothold in the first 
line, and often in the second. The extent of 
the underground operations in launching an 
attack naturally depends upon the size of the 
offensive, whether it be a battalion, brigade, 
division, or army offensive. The date has been 
set for the general attack. Mining units, in 
consultation with the staff of the forces em- 
ployed, will elaborate their plans for the min- 
ing operations. (The battle of Messines fur- 
nished an excellent illustration of the value and 
use of extensive mining in launching an attack. 
In these operations, the British miners fired a 
large number of mines from galleries under the 
enemy front line, and in some cases below their 



226 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

supports. The charges in these mines varied 
from 15 to 50 tons each, and were all fired 
at "zero" hour, the minute at which the in- 
fantry goes over the top. Nine hundred and 
fifty thousand pounds of ammonal were used. 
Some mines had been charged for fourteen 
months and others for a year. One charge 
of 95,000 pounds formed a crater 125 feet deep 
with 186 feet diameter. The largest crater 
formed was from a charge of 70,000 pounds, 
depth of crater 86 feet, diameter 260 feet. 
These mines were in chalk and clay. The 
result was a complete demoralization of the 
enemy, and the first objectives were obtained 
with very few casualties.) The Germans de- 
serted their lines for half a mile to the rear. 
These mines were fired on a front of several 
kilometres. The scheme of the offensive hav- 
ing been planned, galleries are driven under 
the enemy trenches and all charges laid ready 
for firing. 

Throughout the brigade or unit attacking, 
all watches carried by officers are synchronized 
so that at "zero" time all mines are fired simul- 
taneously. Frequently mining units are de- 
tailed to go over with the infantry in raids, 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 227 

or follow them over in attacks, for special 
demolition work, in which event they will 
usually carry portable charges of high explosives, 
and destroy enemy mine-shafts, dugouts, etc. 

The use of mining to destroy the numerous 
enemy reinforced concrete shelters is now com- 
ing to the fore. Artillery-fire, even of the 
heaviest character, often fails to destroy these 
shelters, and engineers are called on to destroy 
them by tunnelling and firing with high explo- 
sives. In most cases, it is usually essential for 
the success of the work that a sufficient depth 
of clay is found, in order to proceed without 
noise. On some occasions they have been 
destroyed from tunnels in chalk, but this is 
increasingly difficult with the enemy's improved 
methods of listening. Smaller galleries must 
usually be driven. It often happens that very 
little cover to these galleries can be obtained 
and the work is more hazardous, but the success 
of these operations is undoubted if careful 
measures are adopted. 

In June, 1917, the writer's company destroyed 
a German reinforced concrete machine-gun post 
by tunnelling from the Hindenburg line for a 
distance of 200 feet, through an average of 7 



228 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

feet of clay above the chalk. For most of the 
distance, only 2 feet of cover was possible, but 
the operation was completed in a few days, 
and with a charge of 500 pounds of ammonal, 
placed right up against the concrete, succeeded 
in entirely destroying this German defense, 
and largely assisted the infantry in capturing 
another 500 yards of the enemy Hindenburg 
trench. 

In the instance referred to, the enemy had a 
listening instrument set up in the chalk, but 
had evidently failed to hear the work in the 
clay above. 

Nearly all the German trenches are under- 
mined by a series of subterranean galleries, 
thirty feet or more in depth. As they retreat, 
in addition to building blocks or breastworks 
in the trench on top, they will also blow the 
tunnels underground. It sometimes happens, 
however, that these underground galleries are 
not destroyed behind them, and the enemy have 
taken advantage of this situation by waiting 
until the trenches are occupied in force by the 
pursuing troops, and then blowing big mines 
under them. Careful investigation of the 
enemy trenches occupied after an advance is 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 229 

essential, though this obvious precaution is 
sometimes overlooked. In all mining work of 
this character, speed and silence are of first 
importance. 

No. 55. 
LINE CORPS SUMMARY OF 
INFORMATION 

Received up to 6 p. m., 17th August, 191- 

CONFIDENTIAL. This document is not 
to go beyond Battalion or Battery Commanders 
who are responsible that no copies risk falling 
into the enemy's hands. 



1. BRITISH OPERATIONS. 

I. (a) During last night and today on the 
nth Divisional front the 6th Lincolns 
Regiment and the 6th Border Regiment, 
by a series of enterprising patrols and 
bombing attacks, succeeded in occupying 
the whole of CONSTANCE TRENCH 
up to R. 33. a. 5. 4., near which touch w*s 
established with the 34th Brigade on their 
right, the whole of DANUBE TRENCH 
was also occupied and bombing posts 



2 3 o FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

pushed out to near JOSEPH'S TRENCH 
in R. 32. b. 

The enemy who had been holding these 
trenches fled in considerable confusion, 
leaving their rifles behind them. 

Point R. 32. c. 3. 9. was also occupied 
and direct communication opened with 
the 49th Division holding the LEIPZIG 
SPUR. 

(b) On the 49^ Divisional front 2 (diag- 
onal) Lieut. Storm of the 5th York and 
Lancaster Regiment, who had been or- 
dered to obtain an important identifica- 
tion, personally reconnoitred the enemy's 
trenches about R. 19. c. 8. 4. Returning 
he then led two platoons against the se- 
lected point and succeeded in forcing an 
entry. Considerable losses were inflicted 
on the enemy both by our surprise artil- 
lery barrage and during the bayonet and 
bomb fight which followed. 

The one prisoner necessary for identi- 
fication purposes was duly brought away 
and the raiders returned with a loss of 
one man killed and a few wounded. 

(c) A German 5.9 Howitzer originally 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 231 

captured by the 48th Division near 
R. 32. c. 9. 1. and since covered by shell 
earth has been found again today. 

2. A hostile balloon (location unreported) 
was seen to fall in flames about 3 p. m. 

3. Artillery. 

25 direct hits on emplacements have 
been reported during the last 24 hours. 

At one position the pit was entirely 
blown away, 2 explosions occurred, and 
the dugout into which 2 Officers had been 
seen to run received 2 direct hits; several 
corpses were seen lying about. 

About 12 noon today one of our bat- 
teries caused a large explosion at R. 26. c. 
3. 4. This was probably an ammunition 
store which has been reported by several 
prisoners to be located at this point. 

4. Prisoners. 

During the last 24 hours 9 prisoners 
have been captured by the II Corps, of 
which 7 were wounded. 

Total captured by II Corps up to 6 
p. m. on 17th 26 Officers and 1,523 other 
ranks. 

Total captured by Reserve Army up 



232 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

to 6 p. m. yesterday yj Officers, 4,478 
other ranks (including 970 wounded). 
2. ENEMY'S OPERATIONS AND MOVE- 
MENTS. 

1. Air reconnaissances carried out this morn- 
ing report that a considerable train move- 
ment on the line from CAMBRAI to 
BAPAUME. 

No large movements of troops or trans- 
port were seen on the roads in the area 
opposite the Corps front. 

2. Much traffic on the IRLES-GREVIL- 
LERS Road, both ways, is again reported. 

3. SCHWABEN TRENCH is evidently 
occupied round about R. 33. a. 2. 7., men 
having been seen moving around there 
during the day. 

4. Yesterday the enemy blew up ammuni- 
tion in evacuated gun pits to the North- 
east of COURCELETTE, but it cannot 
be said there are definite signs at present 
of withdrawal from the line South of the 
ANCRE. 

5. Hostile Artillery Activity. 

Normal during the last 24 hours. 
LEIPZIG Salient, AVELUY, PIONEER 



day. 



PRINCIPLES OF MINING 233 

ROAD in W. 16. b., the MESNIL area, 
WONDER WORK and THIEPVAL 
WOOD have been shelled during the 

Enemy's trench mortars have been 

quiet. 

ENEMY'S DISTRIBUTION, DIS- 
POSITIONS and ORDER OF BAT- 
TLE. 
See Annexe. 

ENEMY'S DEFENCES. 

(a) Machine Guns. 

An emplacement, believed to be new, 
has appeared in BULGAR Trench about 
R. 26. a. 2. 4. 
Machine Guns have been located at: — 
R. 25. b. 7. 7. * 
R. 19. c.i. 5. 
Q. 24. b. 1. 1. 
R. 27. c 3. 8. 

(b) Dugouts Reported Occupied. 

R.31. a. 53. 37. 

R. 32. a. o. 9. to 2. 8. — holding 1 

Company of the 77th R. I. R. 

(Prisoners statement). 
R. 27. d. X. 3. 



Prisoners statement 



234 FIGHTING UNDERGROUND 

(c) Headquarters Located. 

H. Q. of the 45th Res. Divn. is reported 
to be in HAPLINCOURT. 

H. Q. of the 212th Res. Regt. HAPLIN- 
COURT. 

H. Q. of the 211th Res. Regt. LE BAR- 
QUE. Battle H. Q. of this Regt. is in 
dugouts about 200 yards behind WAR- 
LENCOURT. 



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